Heart of Ice
by Chirakka
Summary: My first fic. Horrible at summaries. OC is Haku's older sister. There is more to this cold kunoichi from the Hidden Moon then what meets the eye. Contains four OC, Genma, and maybe Anko. Much OOCness...Ressurected by request-adding 14 new chapters...heheh
1. Default Chapter

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters, concepts, names and related indicia. They are copyright (c) Masashi Kishimoto... I haven't looked at this fic for a LONG time. It's so weird to read how I wrote it, and then read part of Walkman, my latest fic. The difference in description is like... WOAH, hehe. Oh, and I have the last two chapters of this (written like the rest of them, not like my Walkman fic) that I'll post soon. :)_

* * *

The shadowy figure of a kunoichi moved almost silently through the forests surrounding Konoha. She was dressed in a loosely fitted red and black uniform, and her face was covered by a hunter-nin mask. As she passed through the shadows, closing the distance between herself and the hidden village, her movements slowly became more erratic; she had been running for three days straight.

The ninja collapsed at the edge of a small clearing as the moonlight played softly against the hunter-nin mask. The top half of the mask was covered with dried brown blood, and the bottom was dripping with fresh blood. She looked down at the small puddle collecting around her knees, and coughed up some more, before passing out.

When she awoke about an hour later, the moon was still visible, but there was now a small line of hazey-white light coming from the horizon. _Oh, shit,_ she thought. She struggled to her feet and forced her overworked body to stumble foreward. _I wonder if they're still following me. I left an easy trail to follow, so I wouldn't be suprised._

Her condition was now easily visible in the approaching daylight. Her exposed arms were covered in serious chakra burns, and the fingers of her left hand all seemed to be broken. Her dark brown hair was tied up into a bun, and some loose strands were plastered to the mask. She was breathing heavily, and with every breath of the early winter morning, it was as if a thousand needles were being run down her throat and across her lungs. But she kept going.

She finally arrived at one of the walls surrounding the Hidden Village, and decided to use what little amount of chakra she had left to jump it. One more time she was forced to use her chakra, and as she landed on the top of the wall, she clumsily skidded to a halt.

Her prescence was immediately acknowledged by four of the Anbu guards, and as she struggled into a crouching position, the captain held a poised katana above her head. _Some welcome Tsunade,_ thought the kunoichi. She held up her hands and slowly removed her weapons pouch, placing it on the ground before her.

The Anbu captain finally spoke up, "What business do you have in Konoha, Hunter-nin?"

The sudden noise drilled into her head, causing her sight to waver slightly. She caught her breath and finally managed to gasp out her first words in days. Her voice came out in a raspy whisper that felt like sandpaper grating against her throat.

"Go...Gomen...Please, I must speak with the Hokage. Please...Please take me to Tsunade-sama..."

The confused Anbu captain watched the shinobi collapse, before sending one of his men to fetch the medical ninja.

As the female ninja slipped away once more, away from the endless pain, her mind brought up a picture of the Hokage. _Please...Please... Let me live through this one last thing at least..._


	2. Chapter 2 Hunternin

The small room was packed full of chuunin, jounin and special jounin, with the Hokage sitting at the front and speaking seriously to a light brown-haired jounin. Another of the Sannin, Jiraiya, was crouched on a chair on her left side, openly expressing how uninterested he was in the topic. Iruka and Kakashi were seated in the front of the room, chatting lightly, and the chuunin examiner Genma was leaning casually against a wall with his eyes closed and his toothpick still. They were talking quietly among themselves, debating what they should do about the Hunter-nin that unexpectedly entered their lives three days ago.

Jiraiya suddenly got up and headed for the exit, followed by a sleepy Genma, but they were suddenly stopped as they heard a loud thump from the room behind theirs. The room where the Hunter-nin was supposed to be sleeping. Thirty heads suddenly spun around and all talking ceased. There was another thud and the paper doors to the kunoichi's room slid open.

The shinobi rubbed her eye and she seemed to take no notice. She had dark brown hair which was done up in a bun, covered in white cloth, and her bangs hung loosely in front of her face. In her other hand, she loosely clutched her red and white Hunter-nin mask with broken fingers that were lightly bandaged. To the assembled ninja, she looked almost like a small child who had woken up too early. Tsunade broke the silence. "You're up already?"

The ninja's eyes focused and she took a step back. "Ah! Hokage-sama! Gomen! I- am I interrupting? Gomen...."

"Actually we were just talking about you. Come sit...." Tsunade pulled up Jiraiya's abandoned chair. "We wanted to ask you some questions. Do you even know where you are? I expected the first words out of your mouth to be 'where am I?' or something like that." She smiled slightly.

The Hunter-nin coughed and sat down across from the Hokage, her previoulsy childish look now exchanged for a serious one, she seemed fully awake and alert. "I won't waste my breath on useless questions." _I have made it to Konoha finally......_

"Tsunade-sama, I have important news to deliver." She paused and coughed some more before continuing slightly quieter.

"The Akatsuki... they have taken action against some of the smaller hidden villages. They have taken over one and destroyed two more which would not side with them. The Grass ninja are currently under their control, and the Hidden Rain Village has been completely destroyed. They went great extent to make sure that there were no survivors. Another village, one completely unknown by the rest of the ninja world, was also destroyed. They were an extremely powerful village completely made up of assasins, and they took many Sound ninja with them when they fell, seriously wounding many of the Akatsuki as well, and thinning their numbers greatly. The name of the village was the Hidden Moon Village, and my father was the Kage. His last orders were for me to run and report to the nearest village."

_I smell a war, _thought Tsunade. It took her a moment to digest this information, but she kept a calm exterior before replying. "And why has the Akatsuki suddenly decided to take action? Why now of all times?" _I wonder why we didn't find out about this sooner..._

The Hunter-nin shifted uncomfortably, and fiddled with her mask, before she replied. "Ah..... It- It's because of me.....I think....."

When silence greeted her, she decided to continue. "You see, I, uh, I possess two different bloodlimits, and I use a use a style of fighting that was thought to be extinct. The Akatsuki found out about the Hidden Moon and about me and my father, and saw us a a large threat to their existence, even though we had nothing to do with them. They were trying to destroy us. My father said that my skills might rival those of the legendary Orochimaru, and that I could overpower almost any one of the Akatsuki with ease. He told me that there were few who could ever challenge me. But now I am the last Moon Ninja, and the last to possess either of my two bloodlimits.

"My father told me that in a few years I was to teach at least five other ninjas my style of fighting, to keep the line going, and after sending out a few of our most talented Anbu, we chose them. One from the leaf, one from the Lightning, one from the Waterfall, one from the Rain and one from the Grass. Obviously, the chice of the Rain and Grass were eliminated. Three days before I arrived here, the Akatsuki attacked. They were controlling many Sound-nin and Grass-nin, and the Akatsuki themselves fought. Although our village was extremely powereful, we were few in numbers and were slowly pushed back. My father sent me on my last official mission, and that was to escape to the nearest village and alert the Kage. I had to run for three days straight, but I finally made it."

The kunoichi ended with a small coughing fit, covering her mouth and clutching at her throat. When she finished she closed her eyes and sat back, fiddling with her mask again. Tsunade was struck with her age, she looked to be around seventeen or eighteen, and yet she was a Hunter-nin. _She looks exactly like....._

Whispers broke out through the room, and the only person who looked unconcerned was Genma, who still leaned against a wall with a questioning eyebrow arched and his toothpick bobbing up and down thoughtfully. Even Jiriaya was somewhat impressed.

Tsunade adressed the ninja one more time. "You should go back to sleep for awhile and try to replenish some of your chakra."

The shinobi nodded and stood to leave, bowing once._ This kunoichi sure is polite, but she doesn't seem to be used to socializing,_ Tsunade mused. But before the shinobi could open the door to her temporary recovery room, Kakashi decided to question her. "Oi, Hunter-nin, what's your name?"

There was a small pause. "It's Tsuki Koumei."

Kakashi searched his mind before venturing farther, "Tsuki... You mean like..... Tsuki Haku?"

_That's it! She looks exactly like that boy...,_ Tsunade thought.

Komei spun around angrily and glared at him, a sudden change of personality that astonished Kakashi. _Oops_, he thought. _Strike one..._

"You don't deserve to speak his name, Copy Ninja. If I weren't in another village, you would be dead by now." Most of the ninja in that room would have agreed that had she been able to, she would have screamed those words. Her voice dripped with venom, and her deep brown eyes flickered dangerously.

Tsunade jumped up and glared a warning at Tsuki Koumei, as the majority of other ninja in the room drew kunai or shuriken. Komei shot a look at them that said she could kill them without effort, but she thought better of it. She snapped the door open, entered and slammed it shut with amazing force, causing the paper to shudder.

Tsunade returned to her seat before adressing Kakashi. "Please refrain from personal questions in the furure, Kakashi. There are many shinobi in this world that have painful memories, and I do not want this ninja as an enemy."

"Gomen, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage dismissed the meeting, but called out for one of the special jounin to remain. "Kasei, may I speak to you for a moment?"

"Of course, Tsunade-sama." A medium sized shinobi, around nineteen, turned slowly to face her. He was the same ninja that hadbeen speaking with her earlier. _I knew that this would happen. I should have made an effort to leave faster. Why always me?_ He sighed, causing a few strands of light brown hair to annoyingly fall into his eyes. He brushed them aside before approaching the Hokage.

"Kasei, you know what I am going to ask you, but will you accept the job once again?" The Hokage looked into his cold grey eyes, which were constantly alert. She smiled. Kasei nodded, "Hai."

"Arigato. You understand the danger in watching over a ninja from another village, don't you? The last time I got someone to watch another ended up with Gekkou Hayate being slaughtered. And he was not as frail as he looked. Are you sure you want to do this? This kunoichi is probably not one to brag about her abilities."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I am confident in my own abilities."

"I'm confident in your abilities as well, Kasei. Find out any information you can from her. You may go now. But be careful, I can't remember the last time I sensed this much chakra coming from any one person. Especially not one who ran for three days straight, chased by the Akatsuki." She added the last part sarcastically, and grinned again. He did not return it.

Kasei had noticed too, and it annoyed him more than anything, but his expressionless face showed nothing. He bowed slightly before leaving. When he was outside, he stretched for a moment, breathing in the cool winter air, before crouching low and springing onto the nearest rooftop. There, he silently slipped over to the roof of Koumei's room and made himself comfortable. _This is gonna be a long day._


	3. Chapter 3 Gekkou Hayate

Koumei listened from the opposite side of the door as a male's voice conversed with the Hokage. _He sounds almost like Hayate._ It was a simple thought, but it hadn't prepared her for what came next.

_"Arigato. You understand the danger in watching over a ninja from another village, don't you? The last time I got someone to watch another ended up with Gekkou Hayate being slaughtered. And he was not as frail as he looked......"_

She almost cried out in suprise. Dead? It was almost impossible. He had been singled out to be trained by her. He had been the most promising cantidate as well, and she had known him for a long time. He was actually more powerful then that Kakashi, one of her Anbu had found this out when they were spying on him training. The way he would manipulate his techniques. It was not possible for him to be defeated like that.

_Whoever did this will pay..._

He had been her closest friend, not close in _that_ sense, but he was someone who she could talk to. Even if they had to do it in secret, outside of the village. She would visit him every weekend, if he wasn't on a mission. Before meeting him, she had never let anyone close to her, she had never trusted even in her father. But then she met him, and had felt sorry for him.

The next meeting, she had snuck into the village itself, where he was sleeping in the hospital. She brought him a rare type of medicine from one of her more friendly 'aquintances' to stop him coughing up blood. But when he refused it, saying he'd die soon anyways and that she shouldn't waste her energy on him, she stayed late and encouraged him not to give up. She ended up leaving him the medicine, which he eventually accepted.

She had instantly befriended the young man, and ended up telling him her life story, which she had never done before. She had known him for five years. To hear of his death was devastating. But she would show no emotion. Ninjas don't cry over dead people. _But I wish I could..._

She stood up and walked over to her clean outfit. It must have been washed while she was unconcious. She slipped out of her provided robes, they were deep red and reached down to her ankles. Underneath she wore white pants and a loose white shirt, which she also slipped off.

She traded these in for her usual comfortable outfit. It consisted of loose black pants that reached down almost to her ankles, and a simple black and red tanktop. On her left shoulder was a clearly visible Anbu tatoo, but it was interrupted with a small scar. On top of her tanktop, she slipped on a sleeveless black vest, which had eight scroll holders along the bottom edge. She adjusted a Kakashi-like facemask over the lower half of her face. After buttoning up her vest with some difficulty due to her broken fingers, she picked up her mask and put it on.

Before heading out, she decided to bring at least a few of her weapons. She fixed on her weapons pouch, full of six-inch needles and shuriken, along with some tetsubishi, and put on two kakutes, one on her index and one on her middle fingers. He left hand was utterly useless, though. As an afterthought, she packed a nekote in her other weapons pouch, and grabbed a shobo to hide in one of her scroll pouches.

She opened her window and jumped up onto the sill, using her armoured right hand for balance, and cradling her left hand. _Just for a little while.... I'll pay my respects to him.... and perhaps train for awhile... this place has to have training fields._

She steadied herself before launching herself into the daylight. A shadow followed far behind, unknown to her, and too far away for her to sense it's chakra.

Koumei searched around the town for almost an hour, before she came across the Stone Memorial. At first she didn't know what it was, but upon closer examination, it revealed a list of names. The newest name, at the bottom of the list, read 'Gekkou Hayate.'

She took a step forward and crouched down, tracing the fingers of her right hand over the name of her fallen friend. She sat there for a long while, just staring at the coal-black stone, before she dropped her head and stood. She remained for another few minutes, until a little after lunch, before she moved again. She returned to the rooftops and looked back at the memorial, with the white flag flapping weakly in an cold breeze. Koumei shivered and turned to go to the training field she had passed while exploring. She decided she would train there for awhile before heading back or getting dinner.

"Gomen, Hayate. I was late again, as I was for Haku..." She slipped off towards the outskirts of the village, toward the fields. And all the while the shadow followed her.

Luckily, when she arrived, there were no other ninjas there. She began training her taijutsu, using only her right hand and grunting in pain every once and a while because of an earlier wound to her side. She pushed her body to an amazing pace, her movements became blurred. But she couldn't keep up for that long, and ended up doing some target practice with her needles.

When she ran out of stamina, she decided to work on chakra control. The sun was low in the sky now and the air was growing steadily colder. She shivered and made her way to the edge of the field, watched all the time by a pair of curious grey eyes. She looked around for awhile before locating a half-frozen puddle. Using her chakra, she melted off the top ice to make it easier.

Koumei kneeled down and closed her eyes behind the mask. Her dark bangs fell forward and she shivered once more before relaxing. She held both of her hands out and sat perfectly still. A moment later, a small ball of water floated towards her. Grey eyes widened in the shadows as they took this in.

The small sphere of liquid moved slowly around her, as she changed its shape. Traingle, square, cube, needle. She then separated it into four spheres and formed them into letters. H. A. K. U. They moved slowly up and down in front of her, before she released it and the fell to the ground, breaking form.

"Gomen, Haku," she whispered. She stood and began to shiver again. She coughed and started to leave.

"You can come out now, Leaf-nin. I know you've been following me for awhile." she said as she continued walking.

Kasei's breath caught. _How could she have known about me? She must have very good senses._ He stood, brushing light brown hair from his eyes for the hundredth time today, and caught up with the Moon Ninja. They walked in silence until they reached the village. Koumei spoke finally, as the sun set.

"What is your name, Leaf-nin?" she asked, barely loud enough for him to hear.

"Kasei. Kitsune Kasei," he replied.

"The Fox clan?" she stopped and examined him for a moment, looking into his alert grey eyes. He calmly looked back at her through the mask, although he could not see her eyes. She turned back and resumed walking. She cast a longing glance at the unusually empty ramen bar. The only people she could see were an chuunin with his hair tied up talking with a very loud blonde boy in a completely orange outfit. _It's that demon boy, Naruto. The one who... _She considered just walking away, but her hunger got the best of her. She walked over to the bar and sat as far away as possible from the other two customers.

As soon as she sat, their conversation stopped and they both stared rudely at her. Kasei joined her at the bar. She dug in her pockets, looking for loose change, but finding none. "Shit" she whispered. She was about to go without food again when Kasei held out a handful of money.

"Here. If I'm gonna be following you around for awhile, I might as well be on good terms." She looked at him for a moment before accepting it. She was truly hungry, and needed anything she could get. They placed their orders and a bowl of steaming ramen was placed before each of them. The other customers were still staring, but the chuunin finally turned back to his bowl. She removed her Hunter-nin mask and placed it face down beside her, pulling down her face mask also.

Kasei was eating already, and another person arrived at the stand, placing an order and waiting patiently. He glanced at her as she began to eat and she was startled to see two pupil-less eyes glaring almost angrily at her. _Hyuuga,_ she thought. He also seemed to be avoiding the loud blonde. _Who is still staring at me,_ she thought.

She was doing a good job of ignoring him and concentrating on her ramen, until he made a big mistake. She heard him mutter something to the chuunin, which wasn't actually a 'mutter' in her opinion, and she caught the words '_like that boy....Haku ._' That was it.

_Is this village against me or something!?_ she screamed inwardly. Her body stiffened as she fought an inner war. She concentrated on her food, but ended up breaking her chopsticks. The sharp wood dug into her armoured hand, causing blood to spill over onto the table and splinters to enter, almost piercing through. She cast them aside and swore under her breath. Kasei stopped eating. He had also heard the remark and remembered her past reaction. _Uh-oh._

She stood up suddenly as four heads turned towards her. She charged at the boy, but Kasei grabbed her broken left hand and twisted it painfully, and with a few sickening cracks, it began to bleed again. She cried out and fell to the ground, biting the inside of her lip until it bled. The chuunin was standing in front of the demon boy with his arms thrown out protectively. The Hyuuga was also standing by now, and the bar owners looked on nervously. Silence.

"Kasei, why is that Hunter-nin out? She should be kept locked up!" The chuunin was clearly agitated as he adressed the special jounin.

Kasei said nothing but watched as Koumei stood shakily. Blood ran down from the corner of her mouth, and both of her hands were covered in it. Once again her eyes took on the same dangerous flare. She grabbed her mask and threw money on the counter, before stepping back and pointing a bloodied finger at the blonde.

"Watch your words, Demon boy, they might get you killed," she hissed dangerously. Naruto was utterly confused, but he knew one thing at least. He did not want to fight this kunoichi, who looked so much like the icy boy, Haku, either alone, or with a hundred other ninja.

"Enough!" Kasei drew one of his katanas and held it poised before him. "Your personal life does not give you reason to harm anyone from this village, Moon-nin." He glared at her angrily with his cold grey eyes.

"You know nothing!" she actually yelled this time. It did ot suit her quiet appearence to see her face contorted in pain and anger. She stepped back and flipped up onto the roof behind her, before running off in the opposite direction.

Kasei turned calmly to the ramen bar owners and apologized, paying for his half-finished ramen. He turned to the chuunin, who was still defending the blonde, tonelessly adressing him.

"Iruka, I suggest you and Naruto avoid her at all costs. She is growing very unpredictable. I will have to take this up with the Hokage. If she somehow manages to confront you, I suggest you run. No ninja in this village is a match for her. Perhaps not even the Hokage herself. Gomen," He then flipped onto the same roof that Koumei had run off on, and began to follow her. _This damn kunoichi...._

Koumei ran until she was out of breath, which wasn't very long. _That damn shinobi... He re-broke half my fingers, _she thought angrily. She could not hold it in any longer. She crouched down on the rooftop, and looked up at the dusk sky. She brought her legs up to her chest and buried her face in her arms. She thought of Haku and Hayate and everyone else whose deaths she blamed on herself.

Kasei stood a few meters away and looked on. The kunoichi's shoulders were shaking, although she made no sound. Her bangs fell loosely over her arms and knees, but she didn't care anymore. She was doing something she hadn't done, or been able to do, since she was a child. The kunoichi was crying.


	4. Chapter 4 They've Found Me

Koumei ended up crying herself to sleep in about an hour, and Kasei had to carry her back to the Hokage's tower. After placing her lightly on the provided bed, he went off to find the Hokage.

Tsunade was in her (very small) office, looking as if she was going to shred every peice of paperwork and throw it out the window. When Kasei entered without knocking, as he usually did, he found her standing over a particularly crammed peice of paper, pointing a finger at it and yelling: "I WILL NOT SURRENDER!!!"

Kasei paused, wondering what the consequences would be if he got any closer. Eventually the Hokage noticed him and smiled.

"Kasei! Your back! How was day one?" she asked, roughly pushing the files onto the floor and gesturing to the chair across from her desk. He took it.

"So, what's the report?" she asked casually, rocking back and forth on her chair.

"Not good," said Kasei, "She tried to attack that Naruto kid when she went to the Ramen Bar. I had to break her hand to stop her from getting to him. The chuunin, Iruka, was protecting him as well. Also, the Hyuuga boy, the elite gennin I think, he was there too." Kasei paused before continuing.

"She snuck out just before lunch and spent an hour and a half looking for the Stone Memorial, where she paid her respects to that Gekkou Hayate. I think she must have been good friends with him. She was probably eavsdropping on our conversation, also."

"I knew she was eavsdropping. Any other things?" Tsunade questioned.

"Hai. After she left the Memorial, she went to go train and I found out what one of her bloodlines is..."

Tsunade looked up, interested in the topic. "And?"

"It's the same bloodline that the ice boy, Haku, had. The Water Manipulation bloodline. She went over to a puddle and a sphere of water came to her hands, where she moulded it into different shapes, before dropping it and breaking it."

"Oh? I'm positive she's related to him. She looks exactly like him, ne?" she asked.

"I never saw the body they brought back." said Kasei tonelessly.

"I found a whole bunch of Hunter-nin senbon in her vest and weapons pouch. She must use them like he did also..." Tsunade thought aloud.

"Should I write out the report, Tsunade-sama?"

"Hai. I think this Moon-nin needs to be kept in. She is a danger to the civillians and the Leaf-nin. I'll seal her door and get some jounin and chuunin guards to hold the seals until needed. We have to figure out what to do with her." Tsunade stood and made her way to the door.

Kasei grabbed her abandoned pen and a blank scroll from a cabinet and began writing out the past days events. His writing was small and slanted and very neat. His cold grey orbs moved from left to right and back again, and up and down over and over until he was done, where he rolled it back and labelled it. He placed it on the Hokage's desk and left.

On his way out, he was stopped by Tsunade and asked to hold the seal for awhile as she gathered a few ninja to guard the doors and window. When she returned, she brought with her chuunins Izumo and Kotetsu, always together, to guard the door, and the jounin Genma to guard the window. Genma didn't look pleased at all and grumbled something before preparing to spend the night on a cold rooftop wasting chakra on holding the seal.

"Arigato, Kasei. You may go now, but be ready if I call upon you. We might need help if things get out of hand, and you are probably the strongest in this village, aside from myself and Jiraiya." Tsunade said.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," he replied as he left.

In her room, Kousei was sitting up at the window, fully awake. She glared angrily at a jounin on the roof across from her room. He waved, and smiled sarcastically, moving his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. She grew even more irate. The exits were sealed and she couldn't get out, so she decided to try to fix up her bloody hands with no success. Each one was crippled, particulary her left one, and were still bleeding. _It hurts_, she thought.

The brown haired jounin noticed her diffuculty and hopped over to the window sill. He dug in his vest and produced a few bandages, handing them to her through the seal. She took them silently and roughly bandaged her right hand. But when she unwrapped the spent badages on her left one, she was suprised. She sharply breathed in through her teeth, causing the normally uninterested Genma to look back to her.

There was a blood covered bone sticking out from her palm, and another bump slightly lower on the back of her hand. Her little and ring fingers were twisted unnaturally, and her thumb was dislocated. The whole thing was bleeding freely, and was a slightly purplish colour. It was a groteque sight, and she froze, not doing anything but staring at it in shock. _That damn ninja! He messed up my hand! How am I supposed to fight now?_

Genma noticed her state of shock, quickly replaced by pain, and decided to fix it up himself. He gently took it and examined it for a moment before wiping away the blood. His toothpick bobbed up and down in concentration as he began popping the bones back into place. The kunoichi did not make any sound, but it was clear the pain she was in. He re-adjusted her bloodied splint on each of her fingers before wrapping it tightly in a bandage. He then re-wound the bandage around her right hand, they were poorly wound and were doing nothing to stop the bloodloss.

"There," he said in a bored voice.

"Arigato, Leaf-nin," she whispered.

She returned to her bed, where she would be spending the next four days. The chuunin at the door would bring her food, but she never ate that much. She only thought about Haku. She would sit on her bed with her legs pulled up for hours. The guards would switch every once and a while, but she didn't seem to notice. She was slowly becoming more sick, but at least the bleeding of her hands had stopped.

On the fifth day, something happened. She heard the voice of that Kakashi, speaking urgently to the Hokage. She couldn't hear what he said, but she understood. There was an explosion somewhere along the edge of the village and it broke her from her thoughts of death. The Hokage was barking orders at whoever was guarding her door. She felt the seal drop, and she made her way over to the door. There was another explosion. _They've found me..._


	5. Chapter 5 Fangs and Wings

Koumei walked slowly over to the door with her crippled left hand held to her chest protectively. On the way, she attatched a nekote and a tekagi to her right hand, on top of two kakutes. She checked that her weapons pouch was loaded, and slung her mask over her shoulder by the strings. She turned the doorknob and it opened.

There was blood in the doorway that led outside, and there was nobody around. She walked over to the door and glanced outside. No one.

There was another explosion and her head snapped around to see a large snake- no, two large snakes- surrounded by a cloud of dust. She was utterly confused. _I thought the Akatsuki had found me...?_ But then one name formed in her mind.

_Orochimaru_.

Koumei attatched her mask, and took off. She made her way towards the snakes as fast as her legs would carry her, which was very quickly, and was greeted by a bloody sight.

All of the houses and buildings in the immediate area were completely destroyed, and many civillians lay injured as the medical ninja rushed around. There were lines of ninja surrounding the snakes. Jounin, chuunin, Anbu and a few gennin even. They all had their weapons drawn and readied. She looked around and noticed two dead ninja. The Hokage herslef was tending to the injured, and took no notice of the Moon-nin.

Atop the head of one of the snakes stood Orochimaru, grinning. He seemed completely amused with the situation. Until he noticed black pants, black vest and a red and white hunter-nin mask looking up at him.

"You! I thought I'd never see you again. Didn't I kill you, you little kunoichi bitch?" his voice sounded unnatural. Many ninja turned for a moment to look at her, and she didn't appreciate the attention.

"You cannot kill me that easily, Orochimaru, you should know that by now. I was a threat to you by the age of thirteen." she spat back, falling into a fighting stance. She adressed the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, pull your ninja out and let me deal with this serpent. Your ninja do not deserve to suffer through this."

The Hokage did not question, and called them back. Koumei stepped forward and readied herself again. To her suprise, the Sound-nin jumped down and the snakes disappeared. _What's he trying to prove now?_

She didn't skip a beat though, and made a series of one-handed seals with her uninjured hand.

"Eagle Eyes no Jutsu!" she barked and flipped backwards. Behing the mask, her eyes grew lighter, turning yellow, and granted her more than exeptional vision.

But Orochimaru was also ready. He made a few seals and hissed the words "Kage bunshin no Jutsu." Two more Orochimarus appeared on either side of him and he charged. Chakra was visible around each of his arms, radiating electric blue.

Koumei jumped into the air, above Orochi and yelled "Wing Style: Hummingbird no Jutsu!"

Orochimaru and his clones surrounded her as she landed, and wasted no time in attacking. But Koumei's hummingbird jutsu took effect, and her movements sped up to a blurringly fast pace. Her taijutsu was amazing, considering her left hand was utterly useless. Two of the attacking Orochimarus disappeared in puffs of smoke, but the real one caught her chin and sent her flying backwards. She landed about twenty feet away and her hands were both bleeding. She stood up straight and raised her hand to the sky.

Kasei was among those watching, as the others looked to the wounded. The Hokage had said that if the powerful ninja was willing to die for the village, she would gladly let her fight alone. She did not want to lose any more of her Leaf ninja.

As Kasei watched, he noted that he had never seen, or even heard of, any of the jutsus she had used so far. But she was no match for Orochimaru, she had not yet landed a single blow. The hand that she held high was an unusual posture for someone in the middle of a battle. There was silence except for the shuffling and moaning of the medical ninja and their patients. But it was broken by a hoarse _tok, tok, tok, tok_.

Kasei looked up to see a large black bird descending in tight circles. It came to her bloodied hand and she brought it to her shoulder. Koumei reset her stance and the black bird raised it's wings above her head and she made a few one-handed seals.

"Wing Style," she announced, "Golden Talons no Jutsu!"

She charged at her opponent and the large bird took off towards him. They streaked forward at an amazing pace. And Orochimaru just stood there, still grinning and untouched. The two streaking forms collided with him, and the lighter bird was immediately thrown aside with a block from the two hands of Orochimaru. But the tekagi on Koumei's right hand found it's way into his right shoulder. His grin vanished as the jutsu ended and crimson liquid dripped down.

Kasei gasped, amazed that she had landed a fairly large blow on the legenday sannin. The Hokage let out a particularly loud 'what the Hell?', apperantly also amazed. But it was short lived as the snake summoner grabbed her throat and forced her out of him, lifting her off the ground and grabbing her right arm in his free hand. She didn't even struggle or attempt to resist. Her left arm hung limply at her side and her legs hung uselessly below her. Orochimaru brought her face close to hers and spoke, loud enough for them all to hear.

"You've grown weaker, Moon-nin, you know that that jutsu is useless against me." He brought up her right arm and continued. "Let's see you really fight. You just need an extra _PUSH_!" he snarled the last word and her thin arm gave two sickening cracks. She cried out and lashed out with her feet. The other ninja pushed her back and threw her up. As she came down, he landed a rib-crushing punch to her stomach and sent her flying against the wall of the nearest building.

The sannin laughed as she collided and sank to the ground. But he stopped when she forced herself up and removed her hunter-nin mask. Yellow orbs glared knives at him, her Eagle Eyes jutsu still in effect. She coughed up blood and stepped forward.

"I-If you want me to fight, serpent, then I most certainly will. You underestimate me."

Kasei slipped over to the side of Tsunade and hissed into her ear. "If we do not interfere now, the Moon-nin will be killed."

The Hokage paused before answering, "If she is as strong as she says she is, then I'm sure she won't be that easy to defeat. Just watch."

Much to their amazement, she slipped off her black vest, so that she was only clad in her black and red tanktop. The watchng ninja were utterly confused. Until she charged around to face her opponent properly, with her back facing their ranks. There were many gasps from the ninja as they saw her back.

Between her shoulder blades, sharply contrasting with her pale skin, was a curse seal. It was designed to resemble a pair of wings, and the outline was burning the colour of blood. No, the outline was _leaking_ blood. It dripped down her back, before being absorbed by her tanktop. The seal was breaking.

Suddenly, Koumei cried out in pain. Two bright white _things_ were coming out of her shoulders, and looked as if made from light itself. Her face, now maskless, showed blood flowing freely down from her mouth, which had a small crooked smile on it. Her eyes had changed from amber to black. There was no white to them at all. The bright things stretched out farther, about five feet out, still folded, and rose up above her. Blood was leaking from her back, causing a puddle to form at her feet. The white apendiges suddenly exploded in a flurry of golden brown.... feathers? They took form in the sunlight, causing more gasps from the assembled ninja. They were wings.

Kasei could not believe it, it was simply impossible. But the transformation was not over. The bandages of her hands were shredded and replaced with coal black talons, about six inches long and extremely sharp. Black scales advanced slowly up her forearms, both broken and not, reaching to just past her elbows. The puddle of blood on the ground was now considerably larger. She spoke out clearly, in a sharp growl, almost like an animal.

"Leave now, Orochimaru, or I wil be forced to take this fight seriously. Your snakes can't save you from this one, Sound-nin." Her coal black orbs were glaring dangerously, portraying her inhuman personality.

Kasei looked at the dark sannin. He was no longer smiling, but his face was crumpled in fury, and his eyes seemed to show something not unlike fear. His fists were clenched tightly and he looked almost small, perhaps even _vulnerable_.

Tsunade and Kasei's thoughts were running along the same tracks. There was _much_ more to this kunoichi than what met the eye. A golden-brown winged Koumei stepped forward, and watched Orochimaru being torn between stepping back or standing his ground. He stood his ground and decided he wanted to live.

The Sound-nin thrust his hand into the ground and a large, dark-purple snake appeared. He jumped back a few paces as the snake flexed it's jaw. Koumei spread her wings, stretching them and flexing her new muscles. She raised her arms, the broken one temporarily healed due to the scales holding it together, and flexed her new set of talons.

Then the snake lunged at her, and with amazing speed, she vanished and appeared high over the serpent's head, her streaked brown wings hovering. Then, she simply folded them and pitched into a freefall, still unknown to the snake. She held her arms out in front of her and began spinning like a drill head. She connected with the top of the summon's head, her body driving itself about a foot into the skull, through scales and flesh and then bone. She quickly flipped out of the large hole and the snake snapped about.

Koumei dove down further and brought her bloodied talons across its throat once, twice, three times. She finished by plunging her now usable left arm into one of her previously inflicted gashes, and flapped hard, forcing it to slice all the way up to its chin. She then rolled away smoothly, letting the heavy body fall to the ground, minced. She had moved extremely fast, and the whole battle had taken less than a minute. She landed nimbly in the place she had started as the bloody serpent's body vanished, and she was still untouched.

"I have no time to spend on you, Ninja of the Wing," Orochimaru used a more honourable title for her, clearly impressed, "I underestimated you. But this will not happen next time. And there will be a next time, but not now."

He performed a long string of complicated looking seals and in a puff of smoke his body was replaced by thousands of weapons. This jutsu would easily rival Tentens Rising Twin Dragons, and it was heading straight for the Leaf-nin, and the Hokage, to Koumei's right.

She was there in an instant and she skidded to a halt. She braced herself and spread her brown wings to their full length, about ten feet each. She threw out her clawed hands as the barrage of weapons impacted. Most of them hit her wings and the chakra barrier she had forced out, but many smaller ones, kunai and shuriken mostly, were imbedded in her legs and body. One of the last weapons, a katana, found it's mark in her right side and the rest cluttered away.

Tsunade was clearly shocked. She had not in the least expected Orochimaru to flee _or_ to aim for her and the Leaf-nin. But she was even more suprised that this Moon-nin, almost a complete stranger who appeared to hate them, jumped in the jutsu's path and saved a few lives, and prevented many near-fatal injuries.

Kasei was, if possible, even more suprised than his Hokage. He stared openly at the still standing kunoichi in front of him, along with about forty other shinobi. But he managed to snap out of his trance first and ran forward to help her.

Koumei was stuck with many weapons, and she collapsed in her puddle of crimson. She coughed up some more, suddenly feeling the chill in the air once again. And then she felt herself being wrapped up in a jacket by a pair of strong hands, soon joined by three other pairs. One of them gently touched her right wing, and she jerked it back in pain. Her arms had returned to normal, and so had her hands. Back to their normal crippled form. She felt the world become less clear as her eyes also returned to normal. Then her wings vanished, causing blood-covered feathers to fall around her like snow.

As she felt the warmth leave her body through various wounds, she made out one of the figures around her to be the Hokage. She smiled as she noticed a look of worry on her face, and let out a short laugh. She paid dearly, though, as she coughed up more blood. _Please let me black out_, she thought. She coughed some more as she cleared her throat.

"You.... Tsunade... You owe me for.... owe me for this..." she coughed up more blood and slipped into darkness as she heard a quiet 'Hai' and felt the experienced hands of the medical Hokage pass over her wounds.

Away from reality for the third or fourth time in the last week. It was as close to bliss she could ever feel in her condition, to just slip away and end the pain.


	6. Chapter 6 Ice and Blood

_Koumei looked out from the shadows upon two figures walking silently against the snowy background. The larger one had a long, oddly-shaped sword strapped across his back and his face was concealed behind white bandages. His headband, which was engraved with the symbol for Hidden Mist, was on crooked with the metal plate facing aside. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt, and looked out of place in the cold._

_The other figure, however, looked quite at home. He was smaller than the man in front of him, but his aura radiated cold power. He wore a dark blue shirt and light brown pants and had his hair tied up in a cloth-covered bun. His dark bangs hung over his medium brown eyes, protecting him from the brightness of the snow. His eyes were darting all over, and at the slightest noise he would jump in front of the older man. In his left hand he carried a red and white hunter-nin mask._

_"Zabuza-sensei," said the boy in a quiet voice, "where is the camp? We should have arrived hours ago."_

_The other man did not respond for awhile, but kept walking forward._

_"Sensei?"_

_"We'll arrive soon enough, Haku," he said in his deep voice. Haku went silent._

_Koumei smiled behind her mask, which was an exact replica of Haku's. She had passed their campsite about an hour and a half ago, and watched as they walked right past it. They had been doubling back and searching around for the hidden fort for awhile now. Men, she thought. It was not her job to interfere, so she let them figure it out on their own._

_That took about two more hours._

_When they finally found the concealed campsite, the sun had gone down and had left the two travellers freezing, tired, wet, and most of all, hungry. They uncovered the entrance of the cave and entered. A moment later, Koumei saw smoke rising through a hole near her feet, along with an orange glow. _

_Zabuza and Haku's shelter stratched far underground and they had lit a campfire under their temporary chimney. Koumei knelt down and enjoyed a moment's warmth. But it was getting dark and she should find shelter soon. She stood and turned to leave, but stopped. She looked back and saw Haku looking towards her, the moonlight illuminating his small figure._

_"Onee-chan! I'm sorry that I couldn't get away faster." Haku looked up at his older sister. Their resemblance was unnerving._

_"It's alright, Haku-niisan," she said, removing her mask. "I've got important news."_

_"What is it?" said Haku, looking at her with soft brown eyes. He sat down on a nearby log, pulling up his knees to his chest and resting his chin on them. She joined him, sitting up close and keeping him warm._

_"The four ninja following you, the jounin and the three gennin, are gaining." _

_"How far away are they? Will we be fighting them again?" Haku looked into her eyes and she smiled sadly._

_"I hope not, but I want you to be extra careful, alright?" asked Koumei. "I think they are very angry at Zabuza-sama, and if you get into trouble I don't know if I can help you. The Kage forbid me from interfering. He said that this was your own path, and that you should make your own descisions." Koumei looked away, trying not to think about the consequences of another battle._

_Haku was silent. Koumei spoke again. "I don't want to lose you, not like kaasan..."_

_Koumei felt two small cold hands wrap around hers and she looked back into her brothers face. He was smiling. "Don't worry about things like that, Koumei-neesan!" he laughed lightly and stood. Koumei followed._

_Haku stood facing away from her, snowflakes were covering his dark hair and his laughing had stopped. _

_"Maybe... maybe when I finish helping Zabuza-sensei with this mission, I can come visit you... I'm sure Zabuza-sensei will let me if I work harder at being a good tool." Haku turned around to face her and wrapped his arms around her tightly._

_Koumei buried her face in his hair and felt her eyes burning. She held him tighter and he whispered into her shoulder._

_"I promise I will come visit you, onee-san. Promise," his voice was muffled in her clothing, but in the falling snow it was clearly heard._

_"Haku..." Koumei was now crying freely. "I'll be waiting then." The snow was growing thicker in the darkness. "I should go. Be careful, alright?" she pulled away._

_"I will, don't worry about me." Haku turned to leave._

_"Niisan, remember, I really care about you and I don't want anything to happen. Your the only person I have left, so don't do anything stupid," Koumei said, wiping at her cheeks._

_Haku turned around again, smiling, " I love you too, Koumei. I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon." he laughed again, and it made her feel happy inside for the first time in a long while. She smiled back, something she rarely did even for her brother. He turned and began to walk away once more._

_The last she saw of him before heading for shelter was burned into her mind for life. Dark hair, small form, and slow movements surrounded by drifting snow in the moonlight. She stood for a moment before jumping away into the night._

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_The next day, Koumei woke later than usual. When she tried to move from her 'camp', which was on a large tree branch, her limbs did not respond. She looked across the forest and noted that Haku and Zabuza had left already, and cursed herself. She took a deep breath of biting cold air, and calmed herself down, forcing her frozen body to relax. She slowly pushed chakra through her limbs and flexed her muscles before standing._

_She gathered her weapons and re-attatching her weapons pouch and replacing her mask, she stretched and jumped down, following the clear tracks of the two ninja in the fresh snow. It had stopped snowing, and they were easy to follow in the hazey afternoon sun._

_Koumei was lost in thought, absent-mindedly trudging through the snow, when the sounds of shouting and battle reached her sensitive ears. She immediately took off in the direction of the battle, where she found her brother running towards an astonished Zabuza. The bridge that they were on was smeared with blood, turning the snow red._

_"DON'T TOUCH MASTER ZABUZA!" yelled Haku. He skidded to a halt in front of his sensei. Koumei's eyes widened as she saw a silver-haired jounin plunge a large, electric blue ball of chakra straight through her brother._

_She almost cried out as Haku's small form sank to the snow, which was soaked crimson in his life blood. He remained on his knees for a moment, and Koumei thought he might get up. Get up, Haku! Please...! But her hopes were destroyed as he fell forward and lay still._

_All fighting had stopped. She heard voices, but their words did not register, and she did not see a change in battle. Her ears heard only her heartbeat, and her soft brown eyes saw nothing but her little brother. She closed her eyes and sank to her knees, sitting like that for a long while. When she opened them, she saw the other shinobi, Zabuza, laying in the snow beside Haku on the bridge. They were gone._

_She had been too late. The jounin, 'Kakashi,' was speaking to a boy in orange and a girl in pink, who were hovering over a dark form, full of senbon needles. Behind them lay around fifty dead ninja. But she saw only her brother, Haku. And then they took him away from her forever, along with the ninja he had sacrificed himself for. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and hoped that this nightmare would just disappear._

_Haku turned around again, smiling, " I love you too, Koumei. I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon." he laughed again... Koumei felt hot tears burning wet paths down her cheeks again. She closed her eyes._

_"Haku..."_


	7. Chapter 7 Debts

_"Haku..."_

Darkness. And then pain. Koumei was suddenly aware of waves of pain washing over her body. Her head throbbed painfully and she lifted her eyelids slightly.

She was in a hospital. There were various machines beeping around her, along with several tubes going into her arms and wrists. There was also a breathing mask over her mouth and nose. She looked down at her left hand. It was no longer bleeding and crippled, and although it still throbbed, the bones were not poking out or at odd angles.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and opened them again, to see brown hair and a bobbing toothpick in her face. Her heart skipped a beat, and one of the machines made a loud, uneven buzzing noise. It was that jounin, Genma.

He still had a look of boredom on his face, and he said nothing to her. He remained for a few moments before turning away and leaving. _Probably going to report to his Kage and bring a crowd. Just what I wanted...._

She closed her eyes and waited patiently. The machine beside her bed made hissing noises as it controlled her breathing. _I can breathe by myself,_ she thought. But when she tried to remove it, she found her arms wouldn't respond. Neither would her legs, as she soon found out.

So she spent the next few minutes flexing the muscles in her arms, first moving her fingers, then her hands and wrists until she could move them again, even if with difficulty. She removed the mask and the refreshing oxygen vanished. Her lungs faltered for only a fraction of a second before resuming their duties at a slightly more strained pace.

She closed her eyes again and this time she saw snow. She opened them and blinked again. Ice. Blood. Needles. More blood. Haku..... Her eyes snapped open and she heard voices outside the door to her room.

Four people entered the room. Genma leading, followed by Kakashi and Kasei, and finally the Hokage herself. They assembled around her bed in a rough semicircle, but Genma thought better of it and decided to lean against the far wall._ Go away_, she thought.

She put down the mask which she was still holding and looked at the silent shinobi. She didn't appreciate the attention, and closed her eyes to try and escape it. It was a moment for her mind to register that they were talking amongst themselves. She opened her eyes slightly. No, they were adressing her. _Great_, she thought. She opened her mouth to interupt and was suprised when it actually produced words.

"Leave me alone," her voice was scratchy and caused her to notice how dry her mouth was.

"Unfortunately, I can't," replied a bored Genma. Tsunade snorted.

Koumei looked at Kakashi and pictured _His_ blood on the copy-ninja's hands. Her anger returned.

"You! You're the one who killed him. Your name is.... is Kakashi..." she rasped out at him. "I hate you, Murderer." she glared at him. "He never did anything to you, and you killed him. He was just a kid. Haku-niisan..." her eyes were unfocused as she remembered the blood and snow on the bridge.

Kakashi was at a loss for words, and the outline of his mouth through the mask showed it slightly open. Tsunade looked at him and Kasei looked between both of them. Genma had fallen asleep.

_Haku-niisan_? "He was your brother?" Tsunade found her voice again.

"I don't feel like being interviewed, Tsunade-_sama_," hissed Koumei. "What do you want anyways?"

"We wanted to know how you beat Orochimaru," said Tsunade, "You made him look bad infront of many people, and I'm sure he appreciated being beaten by a seventeen-year-old girl."

"He could have easily beaten me had he wanted to. And I'm not seventeen, I'm eighteen."

"Oh? And how's could he have beaten you?" questioned Tsunade.

"He has many more jutsu's than me, and I'd have to use the most powerful jutsu's from my bloodline to even rival-" she stopped, realizing what the Hokage was doing.

"That was a bloodline? But those wings were real, not made of chakra," Tsunade mused aloud.

"It's none of your business," Koumei began coughing hard, causing one of the screens of a machines to flash different colours. "What is all this junk hooked up to me anyways?"

"Life support. They're what's keeping you alive." said Tsunade matter-of-factly.

"Alive...?" she recalled the events of her heated battle. "Ah... You-" she lifted a heavy hand and pointed at the Hokage, "You are indebted to me. You owe me alot for being a sentimental baka and sticking my neck out for you and your Leaf-nin."

Much to Koumei's suprise, the Hokage immediately agreed. "Name your price, Koumei."

"Since you killed Hayate...." Tsunade found this an odd way to begin. "Since you killed off my first choice, then I want you to give me Kasei."

"What!?" yelled Kasei. He had been silent the whole time, but now he stood back a few steps with a look of shock on his face.

"What do you mean!?" asked Kakashi. Even Genma awoke and stood with a questioning look on his face and an eyebrow arched.

Tsunade was also shocked, but she gathered her thoughts and answered calmly. "What do you mean? Kasei is one of the best shinobi in my power. What could you possibly use him for?"

Kasei didn't like being spoken of as if he was an _item_.

"I want you to give me Kasei so that I can teach him my style." she paused, and continued "I don't like to repeat myself, but as I said before, I singled out five talented ninja to pass on my style to. Gekkou Hayate was a good friend and a talented ninja, and he was my first choice, but he died. My second choice was Kakashi, but I decided against that when he....." she trailed off.

"The point is, I want to train Kasei. It's a fair trade, I stuck out my neck, took the pain, which was alot might I add, saved your asses, and now I'm basically doing you another favour. If you allow me to mould Kasei into a Wing Ninja like myself, your village will have a powerful weapon that could take on Orochimaru. He would still be a Leaf-nin." Koumei added the last part as an afterthought. There was silence.

"And what makes you think I will train under someone who is a year younger than me?" Kasei spoke up, recovered from his shock.

"Power is not measured in years, Leaf-nin, and if your Hokage does not agree, I'd hate to think of the consequences." hissed Koumei.

"Was that a threat?" questioned Tsunade.

"If you interpret it as one, than yes." said Koumei boldly.

"You are in no condition to threaten me, Moon-nin," said the Hokage.

"But I'm in the perfect position to, ne?" she smirked. "If you would so kindly allow me to teach Kasei, I'm sure he would become stronger than me easily. I may have my bloodlines, but he also has his. He is a member of the Kitsune family after all. If he is anything like Hayate then he will find ways to combine jutsus and refine them to be more effecient and powerful."

Tsunade excused herself and summoned the jounin outside for a moment, practically dragging Genma.

"Kasei, would you be comfortable going off and training unnder the Moon-nin?" Tsunade was considering her options.

"If you ordered me too, I would do as you say Tsunade-sama," he replied.

"Alright then. But I'm sending Genma with you then."

Genma was now thoroughly annoyed, "Why me?" His toothpick bobbed up and down in frustration.

"Because she hates Kakashi and would probably end up refusing and killing half the village, or accepting and killing him. Your the next powerful ninja to these two, and I'm sure Koumei would allow it."

Genma snorted and moved his toothpick to the opposite side of his mouth. "Fine"

They re-entered the room and Tsunade announced her decision.

"I will allow you to train Kasei away from my village under one condition. You have to train him as well," she pointed her thumb in Genma's general direction.

Koumei looked over at the lazy-looking jounin. "Your name is Genma, ne? You were Hayate's only other friend." She considered for a moment, thinking aloud. "Hayate threw out some pretty good compliments about you. He wanted me to train you with him. You are apperently at least as good as he was."

Koumei paused. "I suppose I could, as long as I get Kasei."

The Hokage nodded and turned to leave. "I need to do some more paperwork, now that I have this to worry about as well." The three other jounins followed her out.

Koumei celebrated a silent victory in her head. She had expected that she would need to use threats or force to get what she wanted, and the Hokage had made things alot easier on her.


	8. Chapter 8 Kuro

Kasei walked down the bright flouresent halls of the hospital towards Koumei's room. As he neared the door to her room, he heard a strange noise coming through it. There was a voice, Koumei's, interrupted everyonce and awhile by a harsh croak. He turned the knob and the noise stopped.

Koumei sat up in her bed with only a few of the original life support machines still around her bed. The window to her lef was wide open and the room was absolutely freezing. Her right hand was held up and supported a large black bird, which her left hand was stroking affectionately. She was actually smiling for once, but it disappeared in a flash as she saw Kasei enter.

"What do you want?" asked Koumei right off. She dropped her hand as the bird flew up. It headed straight for Kasei before landing on a table by the foot of Koumeis hospital bed.

"What are you doing with the window open and a giant bird in here?" asked Kasei. He glanced at the large bird before going over to close the window.

"Your avoiding my question. Answer it first," said Koumei. The bird flew up to her shoulder.

"Tsunade-sama told me to tell you that you will be able to leave your bed in about a week,"

"Oh, that's good," replied Koumei absent mindedly.

"Now answer my question," demanded Kasei.

"I had to open it to let Kuro in. Oh, and this raven is Kuro, he's my only friend and he always keeps me company," Koumei smiled as she stroked the raven again, and Kasei just stood there, not knowing whether to leave or not. Koumei seemed to be in a fairly good mood today.

"Come here," said Koumei suddenly. Kasei obeyed.

He approached the window side of her bed and sat down in the unused visitors chair.

"Say hi to Kuro."

To his suprise, Koumei reached out, and took his hand with her icy fingers. She brought it up to the raven and forced Kasei to stroke the bird. The downy neck feathers were very warm and soft and when Koumei dropped her hand, he continued to stroke the raven. The raven suddenly croaked, and Kasei jerked back in suprise. Koumei laughed, a sound he had never heard before. He dropped his hand.

"Kuro says that he supposes he could put up with having to be around you. But only because of me," said Koumei. "Open the window."

Kasei turned and opened it wide again, before moving the chair aside. Koumei reached into her bedcovers and pulled out a small scroll, giving it to Kuro, who took it in his beak. The bird dipped his head and nuzzled his head into her hair, making a soft croaking noise. He then jumped down from her shoulder and flew onto Kasei's, who froze. The raven looked at him for a moment and then vanished out the window.

Kasei recovered from his shock. _Why am I afraid of a big crow?_ Then he pinpointed it. The bird had radiated chakra. A huge amount. _Strange_, he thought. He stood to leave without saying anything to Koumei, but before he reached the door, she spoke up.

"Thanks, Kasei,"

He stopped and turned his head slightly. "For what?"

"Nobody ever came to visit me all month except for the nurses. I was getting really bored."

Kasei paused for a moment, before turning again and leaving. _This girl can sure switch personalities quickly,_ he mused.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kasei woke up early the next morning, and slowly got up. He stood and stretched, looking at the clock on his bedside table. It read 5:31. He stretched again before heading over to the bathroom to have a shower.

When he came out, he got dressed, putting on his modified jounin vest. It was a darker shade of green and the scroll holsters were horizontal insted of vertical, and had kunai holders on the inside. He srtode slowly over to the window and looked outside. It had snowed.

The roofs of the houses were covered in about a foot of newly fallen snow, which was actually still slowly falling. Kasei frowned and took of his vest. He traded in his sleeveless shirt underneath for a dark brown sweater before replacing his vest and heading off to get breakfast.

The ramen bar was packed full of people, one of them in an orange outfit, so he decided to just go buy some groceries. But before he could head off again, a small yellow bird landed in front of him. He turned around and stalked off at the same slow pace. It was too early for a mission.

When he arrived at the Hokage's quarters, he found her pacing impatiently.

"Kasei, she's vanished," said Tsunade. Kasei knew who she was speaking of.

"When?"

"Around 5:30. I've got an Anbu squad searching, but I wanted you on the job too. She _is_ from another village after all, and we know nothing of her. She could have been lying the whole time for all I know. I want you to find her, unless of course the Anbu do."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," he said sleepily. He turned and left.

Kasei spent over an hour looking around the town, after he lost tracks of the footprints in the snow outside of Koumeis window. He was about to start back at the beginning again, when a black streak crossed his path. It flew right past him but then it stopped, landing on the ground and turning around. It was the raven, Kuro.

Kasei paused for a moment, wondering what it would look like talking to a bird. But he decided that finding Koumei was more important, and crouched down.

"Where is Koumei?" he asked, pronouncing each word clearly. The bird cocked it's head and walked past him. Kuro croaked, and lifted of, circling once before heading off, in the complete opposite direction of the footprints. Kasei dashed after him.

When they reached the village borders, they continued deep into the forest, and Kasei wondered if the bird was indeed leading him to her.

Five minutes later, however, Kasei found Koumei in a small clearing far away from the village. The surrounding snow was covered in blood, and three bodies lay on one side. Koumei was not hurt however, and she was crouching over a fourth body. It was another kunoichi, and she was apperently dead.

"What the hell happened now!?" yelled Kasei, breaking the silence. Kuro flew over to her as she turned around. There was not a speck of blood on her.

"She's from my village. She actually managed to escape." Kasei looked past her and was suprised to see that the dead ninja looked only to be around twelve or thirteen. There was a small yellow bird, also dead and stained orange with blood, that she clutched to her chest. Her headband had a crescent shape engraved in it. _Wing ninja_, he thought.

"This means that the Akatsuki have managed to fully overpower the Hidden Moon. She must have killed these three Grass-nin before she passed out from the cold." Koumei stood and clutched her stomach, almost keeling over. She was still in her hospital robes, and wore no shoes.

"I need you to get the Hokage to burn her body. She also has a few deadly bloodlines, and I don't want them to be found out."

"You shouldn't run off like that. How did you know about her?" asked Kasei as she brushed past him.

"Kuro told me." she said simply.

"Are you okay to get back on your own? I need to report to the Hokage."

"Hai."

"Good," Kasei slipped off his dark green jacket and placed over her shoulders. "The Hokage-sama will most likely be having a talk with you later today, so you can expect as much" He vanished.

Koumei revelled in the warmth still clinging to the vest as she stumbled back the the hospital. A voice came into her mind, interupting her thoughts. _'This means that the Kage has failed. You are now the last Wing Ninja. You should hurry back so that you can recover faster and train the two Leaf-nin.'_ It was how Kuro comminicated to her.

"I know. But even if I can get out of bed earlier, I'll still be unable to fight and if they find me then, I won't stand a chance." she said aloud.

_'It doesn't matter. You can spend the first days explaining, and if the Akatsuki come, I'll lend you my chakra and you can easily defeat them.'_ said Kuro.

_'You're so straightforward. But I suppose you're right. I will, and I know you'll help me. I'm no good at teching, but I've done it before and I suppose I can manage.'_ replied Koumei through her mind. The trees ended and she made her way through the village towards the hospital. Before she stepped through the double doors, Kuro flew off.

Once inside, several worried nurses started scolding her and dragged her back into her room, forcing her back into bed and injecting her with something. She felt the warmth returning slowlly as the nurses left her again, and she removed Kasei's vest. She folded it neatly and placed it on the chair beside her. She felt very tired. _They're putting me to sleep! Hey, they should ask me before they jab needles into me...._

Her thoughts were broken apart as she slipped away, into more dreams of red snow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A moment later, Tsunade opened the door, followed once again by a faithful Kasei. She opened the door noisily and barked out at the sleeping Koumei.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT!?"

Koumei woke up suddenly and hit her head on the headboard. She fell back into her pillows with two hands over her ears. It wasn't the bump that hurt her, it was the Hokage's voice.

"Not so loud," she whispered, but the Hokage continued.

"How was I supposed to know if you were going off to steal my scrolls or something!?" Tsunade exploded, but slightly quieter. Kasei was also covering his ears.

"If I was the enemy, I would not have stuck out my neck for you. I would have gladly let Orochi kill you"

Tsunade paused and decided she was right. She calmed down a bit.

"What happened, Moon-nin?"

"I have a name you know," retorted Koumei, "One of my gennin managed to escape, I suppose."

"Yours? You were a sensei? What's your rank anyways, _Koumei_?" asked the Hokage.

"Yes, _mine_. She was also a Wing Ninja, but she was only half trained and it was her first year as a gennin. But she was very promising, and was a Hyuuga. She had the Byakugan as well, that's why I wanted you to burn her body to destroy the possibility of someone finding out her secrets." she paused before continuing. "And I'm a Special Jounin, former Anbu squad leader, and currently a Hunter-nin. I never got many missions, though, because our village had no Missing-nin. I usually just worked as an Anbu captain."

"Oh? The same as Kasei... Anyways, your now under constant supervision. I'm leaving Genma to watch you." she turned around, holding in any other words she might have had and left, Kasei turned to follow.

"Here, Kasei." She held out his vest and he stopped and turned to accept it. "Gomen. I didn't mean to get you into trouble. Especially not this early."

It was true. When he had reported back to Tsunade, whose mood had steadily declined, she had blamed him for not watching her. He had gotten a small lecture about his responsibilities and how what he did was wrong. And worst of all, Kasei had seen right through his expressionless actions.

"It's not your fault. You kind of had to go, and it's true that I was supposed to be monitering you."

He turned and walked out, leaving Koumei to her nightmares.


	9. Cahpter 9 Wing Ninja

Koumei sat silently in a snowy training field at the edge of Konoha. Kuro kept her company as she waited patiently for the two leaf-nin to arrive. It had been six days since the last Moon-nin had been found, and although she could now move properly and with confidence, she was still weak and had yet to fully recover.

Her eyes were unfocused on the ground and her knees were pulled up with her chin resting on them. She shivered. To her, everything was red. The snow was covered in blood. The naked tree branches were painted crimson. She looked at her own hands. Red. All red. _'Stop it,'_ Kuro's voice erupted in her head and the bloody world turned white once more.

'_I can't help it Kuro. It just gets worse and worse. All I can think about is him. Hayate too. I just want it to leave me alone...'_ she silently replied. In her left hand she squeezed her red and white hunter-nin mask. _'Here they come, Koumei'_ said Kuro. She didn't move.

Kasei arrived in the clearing, followed by a lazy-eyed Genma. She looked up and instead of Kasei, she saw Hayate, covered in blood with those familiar bags under his eyes, and fell of of the stump she was sitting on. She stared at him for a long while before shaking her head and closing her eyes tightly, burying her face in her ice-cold hands.

"Koumei? Are you alright?" said a utterly confused Kasei.

_He sounds just like him... _"G-gomen... I thought for a second... nevermind," she stood and took in a breath of cold winter air.

"What are we doin' today?" asked Genma, it was obvious he wanted to get this over with.

"I'm going to give you a bloodlimit," said Koumei as if it were obvious. Kasei was now thoroughly confused, even Genma had an odd questioning look plastered on his face.

"What? How? That's impossible," pointed out Kasei.

"Usually, yes it would be, but for one reason or another, the Wing ninja's bloodlimit was slowly formed into being able to simply pass on. Although you don't need it to use the Wing Ninja's style, it is an extremely useful component to posess. Come here," said Koumei. She moved back onto her stump and sat in a crouch as the other two shinobi sat down in the snow.

"My other bloodline will not pass to you, only the Wing one. It's called the Griffin's Bloodlimit. It's kinda cold out, but I'll also paint the seal on today I think. Hold out your left hands," she commanded. The two jounin obeyed hesitantly. _The seal...?_ They glanced briefly at eachother.

"Now I want you to take out a kunai and cut it open, but immediately smother it and slow the flow. Before I do this, I'm going to warn you. Accepting this bloodlimit will change your lives. For some reason, it causes your bloodflow to slow down incredibly, causing you to be continuously cold. It will also cause a great amount of pain for the first times you use it, but you will learn to tolerate it eventually. When you use any of it's jutsus, it also results in severe bloodloss. You have no choice but to accept these things, but I thought you would be better off knowing beforehand instead of having the honour of finding it out yourselves." she looked at their faces and almost smiled. They looked horrified, and their faces, even Genma's, said '_What have I gotten myself into?_'

But they recovered soon and drew a kunai each, bringing it to their left hands in almost exactly the same movement. They pressed the knife in, and slid it across, creating a deep cut which immediately filled with blood. It dripped to the snow, staining it red. This time, though, it was not an illusion. The two ninja quickly wrapped up their hands in cloth.

Koumei's eyes were fixed on the snow beneath them, and Genma stared at her oddly. She didn't notice. Her face paled, losing the pinkish glow it had attained from the cold air, and she swallowed. Kasei had also noticed the change by now. _Don't tell me she's afraid of blood..._

Her spell was broken however, when Kuro came to her shoulder and buffeted her head with a ebony black wing. She shook her head and apologized, not to Kasei and Genma, but to the crow.

"Has it slowed down?" she asked in a quiet voice.

They lifted the cloth and nodded.

"Alright, now hold them out flat with the palms up," she instructed as if she had done this many times before. She brought up one of her own kunai and took it to her hand. Sure enough, there was a long scar across the surface. She brought the kunai right across the scar, re-opening it.

She quickly thrust her hand over Genma's, closing her eyes in concentration as her blood mixed with his. The bird on her shoulder stopped ruffling its feathers as her brow furrowed and her head tipped slightly forward. The blood dripping off of her limp fingers suddenly slowed and darkened. Purple, dark blue, black. It mixed with Genma's, eventually turning it black. Both her and Kuro seemed frozen in concentration. Suddenly she broke apart and brought up her kunai, almost offensively slashing it down across his hand. It left a burning blue mark across his previous one, and sealed the dark blood in, leaving a large 'X' scar across his palm. Then, all remaining blood simply vanished.

"Done," she said. Genma brought his hand towards him and examined the new, foreign mark, frowning slightly before dropping it into his lap. She repeated this with Kasei, giving him a scar, which also sealed itself. But she wasn't done.

"Wait, one more thing. This is where you really recieve the bloodline. You'll notice a change after this," she said, "Give me your hands again."

Koumei took Genma's hand in her left hand and Kasei's in her right. The bleeding of her left hand had stopped. The two shinobi were suprised at how cold her hands were. _Like ice,_ thought Kasei.

Suddenly, Koumei's arms were surrounded with red energy that resembled chakra. It moved slowly down her arms, to her elbows, then to her wrists and finally to her hands. Her eyes were fixed on it as she willed it to pass from her body to theirs. When it finally passed over, the two male ninja noticed an immediate change. Their hands suddenly felt frozen, and even as the red chakra retreated back into its owner, they felt the cold reach up their arms, across their backs and into their heart and lungs, and suddenly Koumei's hands didn't feel so cold anymore. She dropped them and her hands flew over to her raven, who was shivering on her shoulder.

She lifted the bird from her shoulder and brought it close to her, forcing blue waves of chakra over him and slowly preventing the shivers. She released him and he nestled close to her stomach.

"What is this?" asked Kasei. He blew slightly warmer air over his hands, but it didn't really help at all.

"A side affect," said Koumei.

Genma was frowning while looking ar his hands. "What was that red chakra? Was it even chakra? It felt the same, but more... concentrated."

"It was Kuro's. You haven't met him yet, have you Genma? This is Kuro. Say hi," she grabbed his hand which he was still examining intensely and brought it to the raven nestled close to her stomach. Using the same motions as she had with Kasei in the hospital, she forced him to stroke the birds dark neck feathers, before letting him pull away. Kasei smiled slightly, before asking her another question.

"Why is it that your hand has only one scar across it? I can tell you've done this before, but shouldn't there be a cross?"

"Uh, well I was the original experiment and did not have the Griffins Bloodline _passed_ to me, I was just born as an experiment and given to the Kage of my village, who adopted me to use as a weapon. But I'm the only one who has ever passed it on to anyone. If you really needed to, you would eventually figure out how to pass it on, but it took me thirteen years," she explained as she stood.

"You were an experiment? Sounds like fun," said Genma sarcastically. Koumei actually smiled.

"Its hard. And painful. But I guess it is 'fun,' " she joked before getting back on track. "Now I need to seal it. I know it's cold out, but I need you guys to take off your shirts. Unless you want wings coming out of your hands."

This time Kasei went first. He removed his dark green jounin vest, and the black shirt underneath. Koumei reached into her own vest and removed a small black bottle, two kunai and a senbon needle. Kasei eyed them uneasily.

Koumei asked him to turn around, with his back facing her. She fell down onto her knees and plunged a kunai on either side of him, deep through the snow and into the frozen earth. She then lifted her hand with the senbon needle and brought it towards the space between Kasei's shoulderblades. She traced along the lines of some invisible design, causing blood to leak down his well muscled back. She traced the elaborate shape of one wing, every feather, and then the other so that it resembled hers. But she then added a small circle, followed by a triangle and another circle around it, between the two wings. It hurt incredibly, more than it should have, but Kasei bit it back showing no expression.

Koumei then wiped of the slightly bloodied needle and replaced it in her vest. She exchanged it for the black bottle, dipping her index finger in it and tracing the crimson lines, sealing them and stopping the bleeding. The whole process took about fifteen minutes.

She then let him replace his shirt and moved onto Genma, repeating the painful process once more. He replaced his shirt and vest also, turning back to face her and rubbing some feeling back into his left shoulder.

"Done. This takes alot out of me, so I won't do training today. I'll just go over the concepts and jutsus. And I'll get you to summon your birds." she said casually.

"Summon?" asked Genma.

"Hai... I sould do that first actually," she said. She unzipped her black vest and took out a large scroll from a specially made pocket on the inside of her vest. It was about eight or nine inches long, and the outside had the design of a griffin on it. She unrolled it. It had around fifteen names on it so far, Koumei's being the first, and each with the pattern of a bird's footprint beneath it.

"Bite the thumb of your right hand and write your name on one of the boxes beside mine. When you're done, touch your thumb to your middle and index fingers and make that design," she held up her hand and demonstrated in the air, "like this."

Kasei and Genma did as they were told. When they finished they looked back at her expectantly.

"Okay, now for the easy part. A Wing ninja usually summons Griffins, but their first summon remains with them forever and comes in the form of a bird. Whatever your bird is, will determine your style of fighting. If you bird dies, you must either summon another one, or go on without one for the rest of your life.

"For example, Kuro was the first thing I summoned, and he's a raven. That means that I'm fairly clever, and easily pick up on concepts. It also means that I use shadow and moon jutsu's while fighting. Another example, the girl who I found last week, her bird was a yellow warbler. That tells you that she was very bright and usually happy and that she used sound jutsus while fighting, like how a warbler sings. So whatever bird you summon wil also portray your pesonality, also." Koumei paused.

"I'll show you how to summon."

She brought her left hand to her mouth and bit her thumb, touching it to all of her other fingers. She then plunged it into the ground and blue chakra was visible around her hand. A circle of symbols appeared in the surrounding snow and the two male ninja stepped back to accomadate it. She lifted her hand and a form appeared in front of her.

First they saw a light grey feathered head, and a black beak, followed by black scaled legs and talons. Then, they saw huge grey wings, folded loosely across a light grey back and casting a shadow over powerful paws, housing giant claws, and a long, elegantly curved tail. The griffin sat cat-like on the ground before them with it's head turned towards Koumei and it's sharp eyes boring into hers. She bowed slightly.

"Koumei. Why have you summoned me? I see no battle." It's voice was a deep, velvety rumble that shook the surrounding air.

"Gomen, Mamoru Kazeno. These are your new masters, they have just signed the scroll," replied Koumei calmly.

"Ah," said the creature. He looked as if he had to get somewhere at the moment and his tail flicked impatiently. "Is that all?"

"Hai, you may go now. Arigato."

The creature stood and lowered itself, bowing elegantly to her, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"That was a griffin?" asked Kasei after.

"Hai, but you won't be summoning one today. You just perform the same thing I did and you'll summon your bird. You'll have a conversation through your minds, and he or she will give you things like their name, element, type of bird and so on. You go first, Genma."

Genma nodded and took a few steps back. He was actually interested in the outcome for once. He reopened the same cut on his thumb and touched it to all of his fingers in turn, plunging it towards the ground and forcing chakra through it. Instead of a large circle, however, the same design etched into his back appeared. The wings took up a large space, and were extremely detailed, glowing orange in the snow.

He removed his hand and a shape made up entirely of light appeared. The wing design on the ground vanished and the creature began changing colour. First yellow, then blue and then green. Long tail feathers spread out behind it and it turned to Genma. It was a peacock. And it was incredibly beautiful. _What does that say about Genma, then?_ wondered Kasei and Koumei.

There was a moment's silence as Genma was frozen in silent communication with the beautiful creature. When he was done, the bird spread it's tail feathers in a dazzling display and turned to bow to Koumei, who was suprised. Genma explained.

"He says he's being polite since your a woman and should be treated likewise. His title is Hoshi Chiba, Earth Star, and he told me to call him Kinu. Kinu's obviously a peacock." Genma said, his uniterested look returning. Kinu walked over and sat down next to Genma, lazily closing his eyes.

"Okay then..." Koumei paused, "I guess it's your turn then, Kasei." He nodded and stepped forward like Genma had. He also reopened his left thumb and ran his other fingers across it. He thrust it down and the symbols reappeared in orange. But instead of a white shape, a bright crimson shape exploded from the ground. Kasei removed his hand as the shape spun into the air before hovering. He waited for it to change as Genma's had but when it did, the change was almost imperceptable.

It flew back to earth and landed on a nearby log, folding it's bright orange-red wings. It's tail hung low and it was abour the same size as Kuro, but it almost radiated brightness in oranges and reds and golds. I was a phoenix, a mythical creature. The bird of resurrection.

Koumei's mouth opened slightly in suprise from where she leaned against a tree, as did Kasei's and Genma raised his eyebrows. Kasei was locked in a mental conversation, and when he broke apart, the bright bird flew to his shouler where it sat comfortably.

"Her title is... Ho-o:Rey Hino, Phoenix- Spirit of Fire, and her name is Rey. I never would have thought that I would summon a phoenix." said Kasei as he stroked her, smiling. Koumei was amazed at what he had summoned, but she soon recovered. "By the way, Kuro's title is Setsuna Kage, Dark Lord of the Shadows, she said absent-mindedly.

"You both summoned beatiful birds, and made poor Kuro look dull," she said jokingly, receiving a buffet of wings from her raven, she continued, "This means that Genma's element is Earth, and Kasei'd is Fire. I'll let you have the next while to kind of get to know them, I guess. Anyways I need some time to..." she trailed off.

Suddenly, Koumei's vision erupted in crimson again. Her raven jumped off of her shoulder and hopped back a few steps as she fell to her knees. Genma's hands shot out to steady her and Kasei approached again. She sat hunched over for a moment, before coughing violently and covering her mouth. When she removed her hand, it was covered in more red.

"Shit. Not now," she said. She pushed away Genma's hand and removed her black vest and sat up. She looked down at her left forearm, and saw what she had been fearing for the last few days. Two dark purple marks parellel and running the length of her arm, burned darkly against her pale skin.

"What the hell is that?" asked Kasei.

"It was a little birthday present from Orochimaru," replied Koumei as she stood. "You should run."

"What!?" asked Kasei, stepping back.

"Go, now! Or I'll tear you apart!" she said as she stumbled against a tree. Kuro cawed loudly and flew higher.

Kasei motioned to Genma and the moved into the nearby trees, out of sight, but they could still see Koumei. She was struggling with her hands clutching at the side of her head. Without warning, she cried out in pain, as two pitch black wings, not soft golden brown like before, shot from between her shoulders. She fell to her knees and moaned, still clutching at her head as blood dripped slowly down her back, tracing an all too familiar path for her. _What is she doing?_ wondered Kasei as he looked out at her struggling in the red snow. Her hands fell as she used them for support, blood dripped from her mouth as she opened it and screamed out.


	10. Chapter 10 Transformation

Red. Blood. Pain. More pain. More blood. On her hands. On the ground. All over. She screamed again. Too much. Too much. She couldn't hold it in. She had to release it. _'Don't! Koumei, not now! Hold it in!'_ Kuro's voice cut through the blood, but did not register. It was too late.

She cried out again as her hands grew larger, turning black and pointed and curving wickedly. Scales spread up her arms, past her elbows and onto her shoulders. Coal black feathers spread from the base of her wings, and spread completely over her body, over skin and clothing alike. She felt her chest and stomach muscles convulse as they enlarged. Her legs changed, becoming more powerful, and velvety black fur spread over her short pants. He feet grew much larger, into paws with huge sickle-shaped claws curving from them. A black, whip-like tail also melted from her body and finally her head and face grew longer, with ear tufts, beady black eyes, and a snout that ended in a diamond hard point.

She opened her mouth to screm in pain again, and an unearthly shriek peirced her unusually sensitive ears. Two pairs of wide eyes looked out from the trees in astonishment at a large black griffin, struggling in the place where the Moon-nin had once lain. But then it stopped and stood. It's talons dug into the red snow as it looked around. A Kuro flew by and the black griffin swatted at if playfully, but with enough force to have killed him had it not missed. It was good to be out for once.

Suddenly, the playful cat-like nature of the griffin was replaced by the nature of an eagle. Sharp eyes spun around to the place where the two unbeleiving jounin were hiding.

"Who's there?" asked the griffin in a deep, animal-like growl. It began walking towards them. It was no longer Koumei, but a completely different entity. The two ninja realized this just in time and snapped out of their daze. taking one look at the fierce black eyes, they simply turned and ran, followed closely by their birds. And by the griffin.

The Koumei griffin caught up with them just as Kasei was thinking about how fast Genma could move if he really wanted to. The Griffin pounced cat-like onto Kasei and brought him to the ground, pinning him with its talons which scraped painfully against his shoulders. The weight was suffocating. The griffin lowered it's head towards his, tracing a talon from its left claw across hi neck lightly, but still drawing blood.

"It's been awhile since that kunoichi bitch let me out, and awhile since I last tasted blood. Ever since her pathetic brother died, she stopped letting me out because she was afraid of the blood. But now I'll put on a show for her. Let me see red rain," it breathed, leaning further forward. But before it could do anything, three forms hit it. One was Genma brandishing two kunai and slashing out at its beak. The other two hit it in the chest. It was Kuro, and his own bird, Rey. And, although there efforts seemed pathetic, the griffin was knocked back, if only from suprise.

Kuro was emitting waves of red chakra as he flew into the creatures feathered chest. Then, the bird actually spoke out loud, chakra coming to his beak and forming a familiar human sound.

"Koumei! Listen, hold her in! You'll kill them if you don't! Do you want to see more blood?" The griffin didn't seem to hear him, but the words registered in Koumei's mind. She had thought she was dreaming, but her raven, Kuro, was speaking to her. She saw Kasei on the ground in front of her, and Genma standing before her. It was bliss in here, there was absolutely no pain. But she had had enough of this nightmare. She found her mind again and lashed out with her arms and legs, tearing at an invisible barrier, forcing it slowly back.

The griffin looked as if it were about to attack again, but then it suddenly screeched and crumpled to the ground, thrashing about like before. Then, it simply exploded into a flurry of black feathers which fell slowly in the snow. In its place stood Koumei.

She wasn't looking as bad as the two ninja had imagined she would look. The only blood on her came from her mouth and she seemed unscathed and able to stand. She noticed Kasei on the ground at her feet, and ran over.

"Kasei! Gomen, did I hurt you? I'm so sorry! I couldn't control it!" she said helping him up. He rubbed his neck and looked at her questioningly.

"This is akward..." said Koumei biting her bottom lip nervously.

"You can't escape giving us an explaination for that," said Kasei after he caught his breath.

"Right..." she said casting her eyes aside for a moment. "Maybe we should head back."

"No, here's fine," said an annoyed Genma. He leaned up against a tree, replacing his kunai. Kinu was asleep at his feet. Kasei joined him, leaning against another tree and folding his arm as Rey landed on his shoulder. They looked at her expectantly.

"We're not moving until you explain at least that part. What just happened? Why did you try to rip out my throat? And why are you afraid of blood?" questioned Kasei. Koumei turned away and crouched down, playing with the snow like a small child. She sighed.

"It's a curse, from Orochimaru. When I was little, I trained under him along with an older girl, her name was Anko. Mitarashi Anko."

"You grew up with Anko?" asked Genma.

"Hai. Orochimaru taught me, honed me into a killing machine. He kinda kidnapped me when I was three. My brother, Haku, was only a baby, and my real father didn't know about our bloodline. I was force to train under the sannin until I was thirteen. Then many things happened. He gave me this curse, sealing an actual griffin inside of me. He then began forcing me to work for him, threatening me with unimaginable pain or saying he would kill my brother, so I was forced to do as he said. The only way I would be able to free myself from his command, was to beat him in a one-on-one battle. So I waited until he showed weakness, and I fought him. He made the mistake of activating the seal himself, and I beat him in that griffin form."

"You beat the Legendary Orochimaru when you were thirteen!?" Genma was actually impressed, and being older than the other two, and having fought him before, he knew alot more than Kasei.

"Hai... but he ran off and left me incredibly weakened. I basically would have died after, but a passing Anbu squad in the area managed to heal me somehow. They had watched the whole battle and were impressed. They brought me to the Kage of their village, the Tsukikage, and he adopted me as his daughter. He forced me into giving him my bloodlimit, something Orochimaru had not thought of. I retained my title as an Anbu captain, but for the Hidden Moon instead. I was promoted to Hunter-nin in a short while.

"I spent the next six years as another weapon for another person. I did special jobs for other villages, but rarely accepted any against the Lightning or the Leaf, and all the money went to my adoptive father. I barely ate, and was always low on energy, but on top of that, many people saw me as a monster, and sent ninja after ninja to try and kill me. Eventually the Akatsuki came, and after a few confrontations, managed to completely destroy my home. So I ran here, and decided to listen to the Tsukikage and train more Wing ninja."

Koumei stood up, "As for being afraid of blood, I'm not. It's just that I see it on everything, when I close my eyes or when I sleep, It's all I see. It's all I dream about. The same memories just seem to like following me around." she walked away, leaving the two jounin speechless. This girl was more powerful than Orochimaru. She had the power to probably defeat all of Konoha if she wanted to.

When she had gone, Genma spoke up. "I-I think we should go report to the Hokage, Kasei. Kasei?"

Kasei snapped out of it. He had been looking at where Koumei had been crouched moments before. In the snow was a red handprint, accompanied by a wing on either side. It was her blood.

He followed Genma back to the Hokage's house, Genma actually leading for once as he did the lagging behind. The people on the streets pointed and stared at the two colourful birds with them, one on a shoulder and the other walking on the ground

When they reached Tsunade's office, they reported the days events as the Hokage stared at the two beautiful birds. When they had finished, she released a yellow bird out the window. The two jounin waited patiently for further instructions, Genma eventually falling asleep.

Soon there was a loud crash outside, followed by a mumbled 'oops' and a loud knock on the door. Kasei opened it and his mood darkened as he stared into the face of Mitarashi Anko.


	11. Chapter 11 Mitarashi Anko

"Sorry Tsunade-sama! I thing I broke this by accident," the loud special jounin held up a shattered picture of the fourth Hokege, before the picture slipped out and fell to the ground. She quickly scrambled to pick it up. Tsunade sighed loudly.

"Just leave it Anko. You arrived back from your mission yesterday, ne?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Kasei suddenly got a headache. Just looking at her bouncy, cheery form caused him to become annoyed. But he tolerated it.

"And you were absent from the meeting awhile ago, right? You did not meet the Moon-nin who arrived here, did you?"

"Moon-nin?" her cheery personality suddenly changed. "What Moon-nin?"

"A ninja from an unheard of village, the Hidden Moon, stumbled in to Konoha awhile ago. She has some rare bloodlines and was taught under Orochimaru, and we were wondering if you knew her. Her name is Koumei. Tsuki Koumei." Anko froze, remembering.

-Flashback-

_"OROCHIMARU-SENSEI! Koumei's run off again!" a fifteen-year-old Anko called as she rushed up to a dark form ahead of her. It spun around and glared at her._

_"Find her now! Why do you always lose track of her like this!? SHE"S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!" exploded Orochimaru. Anko shrunk back. She hated this man._

_"Hai, Orochimaru-_sama_," she scowled, turning back. This is how it had always been. Koumei would get hurt or lost of she would run off, and Anko would get yelled at or beaten. She was tired of it. She stomped off to find Koumei._

_She found a ten year old Koumei sitting out on a branch overhanging a waterfall. Trying to end her life again, most likely._

_"Get down, Koumei! Otherwise Orochi will kill me!" shouted a desperate Anko, stopping a few feet away._

_"If you're not going to make this easier, then just leave me alone," Koumei's eyes were bloodshot from crying as she looked from the rushing water to Anko and back, pouting. Anko softened up a bit. She hated talking her out of things like this, there was only a few ways to do it and it always resulted in her either exploding on her, or running off crying._

_"If you try this again, Orochi will go after Haku. You should know that by know. Just come down and get back to training, Koumei. Killing yourself is the easy way out. And Orochi won't hesitate to take your brother hostage. Again."_

_"No! Please don't! Haku's only a little kid, he never did anything. Why should he suffer?"_

_"It's not my descision to make, Koumei. Just come down and get over here!"_

_Koumei's eyes welled up with fresh tears. "I'll be good, I promise! Orochi-sama scares me..."_

_She slowly backed off the branch, and ran up to Anko, squeezing her tightly and crying into her clothes. Anko wrapped her up in her arms, shielding her from the world. It was back to reality for the small girl._

-End Flashback-

"WHAT!?" Anko backed into Kasei before regaining balance. _She sure can yell, huh_, thought Genma as he opened a lazy eye.

"But she died! I saw it. She beat Orochi, and he ran, and she died! How could she be back!?" Anko was now loosing balance again and she flopped down into a nearby chair.

"So you did know her? We need you to tell us more about her," said Tsunade, leaning back in her chair. "Please start from the begining, Anko, and leave nothing out."

"H-hai, Tsunade-sama. When I was eight and still training under Orochi, we were passing through the Hidden Mist on a mission. We found a small girl training in a clearing with her father, at least I think it was her father. I was going to continue on, but Orochi made me stay and watch. We heard her father telling her that she had some sort of 'special power' due to an experiment, and he was trying to explin it simply. I was suprised when the child managed to channel her chakra and preform Henge no Jutsu, using only one hand on top of that.

"Orochi was impressed, and we abandoned the mission in order to kidnap her. She never even cried, it was as if she had no feelings at all. But she said that she wanted to say goodbye to her brother, Haku, before she left. It was as if it were the most natural thing to be kidnapped. She went into her house and without even telling her parents, she went to her baby brother, before gathering her few belongings and simply leaving.

"She trained with us for until she was thirteen, and an Anbu squad leader. But during that time, Orochi moulded her into a killing tool. It was easy to do, but he often had to enforce his commands by threatening her with the life of Haku. She would then come crying to me. So, Orochi put me in charge of looking after her, like her sister I guess. Every week she would try to commit suicide, but I always got there in time.

"Orochi developed her two bloodlines to such an extent, that she doesn't even need to announce half of them in battle. When she turned thirteen, Orochimaru decided she was too powerful and cursed her, sealing a Demon inside of her. Soon, ninja from the Hidden Moon village began stalking her. They wanted her bloodelines. And she wanted away from Orochi to join them. But she wouldn't stand the pain anymore, I guess, and ended up fighting Orochi.

"The fight lasted about a day and a half, but Orochimaru eventually ran off, telling me to find him elsewhere, and then Koumei just... died... The Moon-nin moved in and I left. But it hurt. She was so small and innocent and Orochi had used her for killing hundreds of shinobi. I was the only person she cared about aside from her little brother. She basically hated eveyone else, herself included. She would sometimes spend days crying, or stay up all night cutting at her arms with kunai. She told me that sometimes she thought it was all a dream and that she needed pain to insure she was still alive. It was really depressing to watch her suffer. To hear she survived is almost... impossible."

"How is it impossible?" asked Tsunade, making a few notes on the scroll in front of her.

"I looked at her body, and basically every bone in her little body was shattered, and she wasn't breathing at all. Her stomach was sliced open and so was her throat. Her lips were blue from bloodloss. I was sure she was dead."

Anko finished, and now all traces of her usual self had vanished. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and she spoke up again.

"Tsunade-sama, can I see her? Is she still here?"

"Ah, Of course Anko. Kasei, please take Anko to Koumei's room, and report back to me before going off. Genma, you are dismissed. I've got alot more paperwork to finish." She stared at her desk, covered in files, and frowned. Genma left, followed by the peacock and then by Kasei and Anko.

"So she's teaching you to be Wing-nin?" asked Anko, some of her cheerfulness returning.

"Hai. How did you know?"

"Because of your bird. He's very beautiful. He's a Phoeninx, ne?"

"Hai."

The two ninja neared the hospital and entered the large double doors. Kasei absent mindedly followed the usual path to Koumei's room. He turned left and headed for her door. Room 118, read the golden plate on the door. He moved aside and let Anko enter.

Koumei was standing at the open window once again letting the room drop to freezing levels. Her elbows rested on the sill and her face was buried in her hands. Her dark hair fell down slightly past her shoulders, no longer in a bun, and fell softly over her white hospital robes. Her hunter-nin mask lay abandoned on the floor.

Koumei did not turn when she heard the door open, if she heard it at all, and remained standing at the window. Anko walked in slowly and stopped. As Kasei walked in after, he thought she was going to start crying again. But after a moment of frozen thoughts, Kasei cringed as Anko yelled loudly and ran up to the form by the window who turned around.

"Koumei-chan!!! It's me! IT'S ANKO-CHAN!!!"

"What? Anko-Ch-" but Koumei was cut off as a large form in a trenchcoat collided with her, knocking her back towards the window.

"You left me all alone with the scary snake freak, and I had to carry your stupid necklace for like six years! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?"

"Gomen, Anko-chan," replied Koumei, trying desperately to push the form hugging her away. But she was trying so hard that when she did let go, it almost sent her through the window. Anko removed something from her neck and held it out. "Here."

Koumei stared at the necklace, but pushed it back to Anko and turned away. "You can keep it."

"Wha?" Anko paused for a moment before smiling. "Is the 'don't touch me or I'll kill you' Koumei-chan actually showing generosity?" Whn she got no reply she continued. "Oi, how's your brother anyways?"

Anko sat down on Koumei's bed and did not notice that she had stiffened. Kasei unplugged his ears intrested in the conversation. But unfortunately, Koumei noticed the movement and turned to him.

"Kasei, I f you're waiting for Anko, please wait outside."

Anko looked at her friend, confused, and Kasei slowly left the room, brushing hair from his eyes.

He leaned against the hallway wall and folded his arms. Rey came and sat comfortably on his shoulder. _'That Anko woman is really loud. I bet if you pay attention, you'll get the flow of the conversation as long as she is excited and yells like normal'_ the voice of Rey cut through his thoughts.

_"Your probably right,"_ replied Kasei through his mind. He leaned closer and closed his eyes, pressing his ear against the door and earning looks from passing nurses. Big mistake.

"KAKASHI!? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN!?" Anko's voice erupted, echoing down the halls and Kasei almost fell over from the sudden blast of sound. He couldn't hear anything for awhile. When he regained his senses, he leaned back against the wall and listened to Anko rant.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS HE DOING!? HAKU WAS JUST A LITTLE KID! I'M HAVING A TALK WITH HIM!"

"NO!" this time it wasn't Anko's voice, but it was around the same volume. It was Koumei. Kasei strained to hear the rest of her conversation, but her voice had dropped back to it's normal level. There were a few minutes without yelling, before the doorknob turned again, and Anko came out with a slightly red face. She looked at Kasei, who had his eyes closed and was still leaning against the wall.

"Oi! Kasei-san! Let's go! I'm going to Kakashi's house, you can leave if you want'" she said loudly causing him to cringe. _I had better go warn him_, thought Kasei. He stood up straight and left, going the opposit direction from Anko. When he reached one of the hospital's back doors, he sprung to the rooftops and bolted to the Copy Ninja's house.

When he reached it he found Kakashi's bedroom window open and he flipped onto the sill, looking around. Suddenly, a masked face appeared inches from his, almost causing him to fall from the window.

"Gah! Kakashi! Watch it!" Kasei straightened himself and jumped in.

"Now what is it?" said Kakashi, returning to his bed and picking up an orange book. Kasei shivered in disgust.

"I'd run if I were you. Anko's coming with a death wish," he said casually, picking at a corner of his uniform.

"What? What did I do?" his eyes were still on that gross book.

"She's gonna whip you for killing that Haku kid. Apperently she's best friends with the Moon-nin, Koumei."

"But it wasn't my fault, he jumped in front of me!"

"You don't need to get so defensive! I was just telling you that-" he was cut off as the bedroom door slammed open, revealing none other than Mitarashi Anko.

"TELLING HIM WHAT!?"

"Goodbye, Kakashi!" said Kasei as he rushed to the nearest window, opening it and jumping out. "Nice knowing you!" A glass, full of water, was thrown at him, narrowly missing his vanishing head. He cringed as he heard things that he had not thought breakable, breaking at a furoius pace, interspersed with Anko's yelling. _Have fun, Kakashi,_ he thought with a smile. Faces turned in the streets as the battle commenced.

_'Was it a good idea to leave him there?'_ asked Rey.

_'It is now,' _replied Kasei as the pages of Kakashi's gross book rained down from the window for all to see. He smiled again and headed home.


	12. chapter 12 Fly

"Umm... I've decided to teach you one of the jutsus today, it's very useful and almost nescesary in order to learn any other jutsus." Koumei was sitting in the same clearing, wearing her tanktop again, without the vest. Genma and Kasei were leaning on a nearby tree.

"Now that you have the Griffin's Bloodline, I can teach you to use Eagles Eyes no Jutsu. You see, a Wing Ninja does not have many original jutsus. Maybe twenty or thirty. They rely on the Eagles Eyes to pick up on jutsus that they see other ninja use. Using these eyes allows you to see chakra, but in battle it also allows your brain to process what you see at an extremely fast pace, so that it almost appears in slowmotion.

"On top of granting almost telescopic vision, it prcesses things so quickly that if you were to go watch a movie in a theatre or wherever, it would appear as a sequence of screens instead of a moving picture. Although it cannot copy moves like the Sharingan or see the inner coil system like the Byakugan, it's still useful. I'll demonstrate."

Koumei removed her mask and made three seals, using one hand, and spoke the jutsus name.

"Eagle's Eyes no Jutsu." Her eyes were invaded by yellow which stretched over to cover all white. Two black pupils enlarged in the center and she blinked a few times.

"I also want you to learn how to do one-handed seals, as it is very useful in certain circumstances. I will allow you to use both hands today, but as soon as you master this jutsu, I'll only tolerate using one handed seals"

"The seals for this jutsu are bird, dragon, bird. Fairly simple. Then you simply force chakra to the back of your eyes. Thats the only hard part. I learned this jutsu when I was eight, and it took me almost two days to master it. But now I'm eighteen, your nineteen" she pointed at Kasei," and your twenty-nine, ne? So I expect you should master this in a few hours, at least by the end of today. You may go practice now, if you need help, come and ask."

Koumei stood and moved over to a nearby tree, jumping up and sitting on a wide branch, dangling her legs happily and replaced her mask. She looked down upon the two jounin, repeating the words 'Eagle's Eyes no Jutsu' over and over. She lifted her yellow eyes and looked through her mask across the forest.

A flock of pigeons glided across the sun, casting a shadow over the clearing for an instant. She looked over to Kuro and he bobbed his head and took flight with them. 'Bird's Eye View' she whispered, making no seals, and she slumped over slightly. Her mind left her body and suddenly she was looking through the dark eyes of Kuro. She watched lazily as snow-covered trees passed beneath her and wished she could feel the wind on her face. Kuro's head moved from side to side, surveying the forest, which was vanishing beneath her, being replaced by busy streets. She was over Konoha.

She looked over the people catching snatches of conversation in passing, and Kuro sat atop a tall building. She saw Naruto at the Ramen Bar, along with a boy in dark with two girls, one blonde the other pink haired, sat on either side of him. A little ways off, another gennin was playing some kind of board game against a Jounin. The jounin was losing horribly.

Kuro turned again and she spotted Anko following around the copy ninja, Kakashi, and yelling at him with a hoarse voice. _Anko, I told you to leave him alone_. She sighed mentally, looking up it was nearly dark out. Time passed quickly, she noted, but her thoughts were broken as she felt something tugging at her. Shaking her shoulders. _'Kuro, I have to go, so get back here soon'_ she disconnected.

When she re-entered her physical body, she began shivering immediately. She sat up and looked around. Kasei was sitting beside her in the tree branch and watching the sunset. Genma was sitting below, asleep. She shivered again, looking over the snowy trees. Suddenly, a warm vest landed on her shoulders. She looked over at Kasei and blinked, realising that her Eagle's Eyes were still activated.

"A-arigato, Kasei-san..." she said slowly as she deactivated the jutsu. He said nothing for a while and she turned back to the sunset.

"Genma's mastered it, one handed seals and all, and I've mastered it with the normal seals."

Koumei looked back to him and noticed the jutsu was active in his eyes. She smiled. "Gomen-I forgot to tell you how to de-activate it."

"We figured it out," he said and the yellow eyes vanished. She stood, wrapping the warm vest around her shoulders.

"I think tomorrow, I'll teach you how to control the bloodlines. That will take awhile to get used too. Then we'll move on to wing jutsus, and you'll get to know your elements. I'll just teach you tomorrow and leave you the rest of the week to get used to it while I go off for awhile. I have an unfinished mission for the Sand."

Kasei did not question. Koumei jumped down and landed near Genma, followed by Kasei, and they headed back towards the village, soon joined by Kuro.

"Where are you staying, anyways? They kicked you out of the hospital because they said you were too noisy. But that was Anko's fault." Genma asked casually.

"I stay at a hotel. But it's expensive, so thats why I need to finish my dealings with the Sand."

"Oh," said Genma uninterestedly. The peacock at his side whacked him with a wing.

"Hey! What was that for!?" there was a moment of silence, and the two male ninja lagged further behind. "I can't do that, it's a mess and it's small. Hey, Kasei. Let Koumei stay with you."

"What?" he hissed.

"You ARE the one in charge of her."

"But-ah, whatever." he flicked hair out of his face again. "Fine."

Kasei sped up and fell into stride beside Koumei. "You can come and stay with me for awhile. Until you get payed for that Sand mission."

Koumei was suprised at his sudden kindness. "Wha- really?"

"Sure," he replied. "You can move in tonight if you'd like. I have a big guest room you can use, with an extra bed."

"A-arigato," she said, turning back to look at her feet as she plodded towards the hotel.

"I'm going home," said Genma, breaking off and turning left.

Koumei turned and gave a small wave as she approached the hotel doors, followed by Kasei. "I just need to get a few things. You can wait here, if you like." She turned and walked through another door. As Kasei waited in silence, he wondered how Genma had talked him into this.

Koumei returned with one bag of things, a very small bag, and went over to the counter. She emptied her pockets and put all of her money on the counter. It wasn't nearly enough, but the clerk just smiled and let it slide. She thanked him and turned back to Kasei.

"Here," she said, taking off his vest and handing it back to him. She dug in her small bag and pulled out her torn black jounin vest, slipping it on and following Kasei out.

The two shinobi walked in silence for awhile, until they came across Kasei's house. It was small and stood alone from the other houses. There were no lights on, and the windows were open. Kasei fiddled with the lock for a moment before opening the door and turning on the lights.

Koumei entered and took off her sandals, placing them beside the door. She looked around. The house did not seem so small inside. The walls were unpainted, and everything was organized. The only things out were a katana and a few shuriken resting on the dining room table beside a cloth and a bottle of polish.

"Follow me," said Kasei. He led her up a small staircase and down a hallway. He turned left an opened a door that had the words "Keep Out" written in Japanese. The inside was large and empty, and the only peice of furniture was a large bed, garbage bin, and a dresser.

"Why does the door say 'Keep Out'?"

"It use to be my little brother's. He hated everyone, except me, and he commited suicide a few years ago," said Kasei casually.

"G-gomene... I didn't know," replied Koumei, turning away.

"Don't worry about it. You're life's been much rougher than mine."

"My life has no meaning. I'm just a tool that will do anything for anyone. People walk all over me, and I hardly ever resist. If he wanted to, I bet, Orochimaru could own me again. People never care about me, and they shouldn't. I have no heart." Koumei was still facing away. There was a long pause. "Thanks for the room, Kasei."

Kasei didn't know what to say, so he simply turned and left, closing the door softly behind him. _'That was odd'_ said Rey. _'Yeah, if she has no heart, then how can she have had friends? And why did she protect us from Orochimaru? This kunoichi... She sure jumps from feeling to feeling. First she's shy, then angry, then she wants to kill you, and then she makes friends with you. Something must have happened when she was a kid that made her like this...'_ Kasei said to his phoenix. He headed off to his own room, and got to bed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Kasei awoke and headed downstairs to see if Koumei was up yet. And she was. Or at least she _had_ been. She was passed out on the table, with her arms folded and her head tilted slightly. Her dark hair was pushed back and tied up and she was in her usual black and red tanktop, and she wore her black short pants. He stared at her face, and noted how innocent she looked when asleep. She had a small nose, that looked as if it had been broken, long eyelashes, and thin lips.

Kasei stood there for awhile, before he noticed how close his face was to hers. He quickly pulled back and shook his head, walking over to the stove. He filled a kettle and set it down on an element, before taking out two cups and pouring coffee mix into them. He sat down and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling and waiting for the water to boil.

Kasei looked back towards Koumei as the kettle began whistling, and she started to wake up. She buried her face in her arms for a moment before lifting her her head. She saw Kasei and rubbed her eyes.

"Gomen... I fell asleep waiting."

Kasei went over to the kettle and turned off the stove, pouring the boiling water into the ready cups. He put one in front of Koumei, placing cream beside it and sitting down with his own cup. He picked up the katana and began polishing it while he sipped the coffee. Koumei poured a bit of cream into hers and began to drink it also. She lifted her mask from the tabletop and traced a finger over the red lines absent-mindedly

Kasei put down the sword and finished off his coffee.

"We should get going." he stated simply. He stood up and placed his coffe mug beside his sink. Koumei did the same, downing the rest of her drink. She followed Kasei to the door and put on her sandals, as he replaced the katana in it's sheath across his back. Once outside, Kasei locked the door and turned to walk off, brushing a few loose light brown hairs out of his sharp grey eyes. They darted all over, seeming as if they never stayed still.

Koumei followed behind and met up with Genma once at the training field. But, unfortunately, there was a team of gennin already training there. Kakashi's team, the one with the noisy Naruto. Koumei moved to the opposite side of the field, followed by Genma and Kasei. _I guess we'll have to share today,_ she thought. She sat down on her usual stump and put on her mask. The two jounin leaned against a tree. She began.

"Uhh... today I'll teach you to release the seal, and we'll spend the rest of the day until around 1:30 learning how to use it. This is an extremely painful process, and it takes alot out of me, so I'll show you once, and then stay in that form for the rest of the training. Are you both wearing old shirts like I told you to? This will cause you to bleed and will stain the cloth. I'll only demonstrate once, so activate your Eagle's Eyes."

There were two nods and the words Eagle's Eyes no jutsu rang across the clearing, on top of the clang and clash of the training gennin on the other side. Soon, two pairs of yellow eyes were watching her intently. She took a deep breath. Using both of her hands, she made the seal for 'bird' and held it, closing her eyes behind the mask. She stood and set her legs apart in a wide stance to brace herself.

Through the two jounin's eyes, they saw chakra gathering between her shoulders. More and more and more until there was a large amount. Suddenly, Koumei grunted and two wings made entirely of light, grew from her back, exploding into brown feathers and taking form. They rose above her head as they had before, and the snow became drenched in blood. She gasped once and let her wings fall limpy aside as she leaned against a tree, catching her spent breath. The gennin on the other side of the field suddenly stopped and looked over.

Kasei's eyebrows arched as he saw that the wings themselves were not actually made up of chakra, and he decided to ask her about it.

"What are they made up of if they are not chakra based?"

"Th-they are real. Real bone and flesh and feathers. But if they are damaged, or you break a wing bone, you will be unable to seal them in again."

"You saw the chkra concentration, ne? I want you to copy it and hold the bird seal with both hands. All you have to do is will them out, and the seal will break. It's very painful, but you must remember to hold the hand seal, otherwise it won't release. You should be able to do this on the first or second try. It took me only a few minutes to master it."

The two ninja nodded as they removed their jounin vests. The gennin were now taking a break and watching them, but they ignored it. Kasei wore a sleeveless black shirt, and Genma wore a dark blue one. They silently took the same stance as Koumei, and closed their eyes, bringing their hands up to form the seal. This action was followed by two grunts of pain, and Koumei smiled. They had dropped the seals.

"Again," she said as she sat down and folded her wings neatly.

They kept this up until the snow was thoroughly soaked in red, but the two shinobi finally got it. Kasei's wings were bright red-orange, and Genma's were dull olive green. She smiled as they collapsed panting and sucking in pained breaths of cold air.

"I told you it was painful. You'll get used to it after awhile. Now, I need to teach you how to fly. First, you should stretch, so when you are ready, copy what I do."

It took the ninja a few minutes to be able to stand again, and another few to regain their balance.

She began stretching and flexing her new muscles, and they followed her movements exactly, but slower as they were still figuring out which muscles did what. They did this for about fifteen minutes, before she stopped them again. The gennin were still watching.

"Now watch. While I'm gone, I want you to do this at least for an hour a day."

She stretched her wings once more and brought them up, extending them to their full length. She brought them down with such force, that the snow beneath them blew oway, exposing the frozen earth beneath. She lifted into the air as they watched in silence. Koumei danced around, enjoying the wind on her face, as the onlookers stood in awe. On the ground, the wings looked so large and cumbersome, but in the air, they became streaks of light brown. She folded them in mid-flight and landed expertly in a crouch before them, before standing.

"I'll leave you to practice while i'm gone, but first i'll tell you how to complete the tranformation. It's the same, but depending on which trait or traits of the griffin you wish to posses at the time, you force chakra there and will it to transform. For example, you can force chakra to your hands or feet for claws, your eyes for sight, or your head for a beak. For a full transformation, just go through every part of your body. Also, the new skin of the griffin will go over your clothes instead of ripping it to shreds."

"You should get started on learning to fly. I have to get to the Hidden Sand by nightfall. To reseal the wings, just will them to do so, and force any remaining chakra away from them."

"What's your mission anyways?" asked Kasei.

Koumei paused, but decided to answer before leaving. "I have to assasinate some little kid. His name is Gaara of the Sand, and he's supposed to be extremely powerful. I gotta go." She took of into the air again and hovered for a moment, before Kuro joined her and she slipped off.

"Gaara? Wasn't he that kid from the exams that had a demon sealed in him like Naruto's?" asked Genma.

"I guess. He's extremely powerful. I wonder if she can kill him. She is still recovering."

Genma turned and flaped his wings experimentally. _Is Kasei worried about her? I'm sure she's fine... but she didn't look so good. She looked worn out and tired._


	13. Chapter 13 Kawa and Sora

Koumei flew until nightfall, watching as the snow vanished and was replaced by vast plains, and then by endless sand dunes. Although she was in the middle of a desert basically, it was night and it was freezing. The blood on her back had dried and was annoyingly itchy, causing her to fly akwardly. Kuro landed on her back and scratched most of it off.

Ahead of them rose a stone fortress, gusts of sand swirled around it, but Koumei managed to keep control and reach it in moments. She landed on one of the rooftops and looked around for any Anbu. She finally found one and ran up to him.

"Oi. Sand-nin. Take me to the Kazekage now. I have unfinished business," she spoke as bravely as she could, although she didn't want to speak at all.

"Hai, Moon-nin, the new Kazekage has been waiting patiently for your return." He turned and led her across the roof, down a hidden staircase. It took her directly to a dimly lit room cut down the middle by a dark screen. The people on the other side were only shadows to most, but Koumei still had her Eagle's Eyes activated. They had apperently been in the middle of a meeting before being interupted by her.

"Kazekage-sama. It is the Moon-nin come to complete her mission."

"Arigato. I will postpone this meeting until tomorrow night, same time. Don't miss it or it'll be your heads," hissed the middle figure.

Koumei took her place in the center of the room, facing the screen and bowing once. Her wings folded lightly across her back, but she did not remove her mask.

"Welcome back, Moon-nin. I expect to see his body in a few hours. You left without notice and your pay will drop for that. If you fail and return, I will kill you myself. The boy has become a large danger to the village, and I want him dealt with quickly, understand?"

Koumei swallowed, but hid her emotions. "Hai, Kazekage-sama."

The form behind the curtain nodded to one of the guards, who stood to attention. "Please follow me, Moon-nin." She was led upstairs onto the roof once more, and she followed the Sand-nin Anbu to the corner of the building. He pointed. "He stays in that building over there. He never sleeps, so be prepared for a one-on-one battle."

She nodded, seeing where he was pointing, and hunched down into a crouch. Pulling out four poisoned senbon, she spread her wings to their almost twenty-foot span. _I'll just poison him and end this quickly,_ she thought. She took of and headed straight for the structure.

When she arrived, she found the Sand-nin's words to be true. In the soft winter moonlight sat a small, red-haired boy. He had a large gourd-shaped container strapped across his back. He hadn't noticed her yet. She threw her senbon in silence, and they headed straight for the small form. But much to her suprise, something rose up in front of him and the needles clattered to the rooftop. _What?_

Gaara of the Sand turned towards her hovering form. "Another assasin? What do you want?"

"If I'm an assasin, then isn't it obvious?" she landed about twenty feet away.

Suddenly, a large wall of sand was heading her way. She dodged it with some difficulty. _He's fast..._ Her left arm grew into a talon which glinted in the moonlight. In her other hand, she whipped out four more poisoned senbon. But the boy didn't skip a beat. Another wall of sand, larger and full of power, was heading straight for her. She braced herself and brought up her talon with enough force to shatter stone. It cut a clean opening through the wall, but left her with many cuts. Before the boy could react, four poison needles entered his body as a wall of sand came up around him too late.

She smiled, but froze when something happened. The boy was no longer a boy. He was covered in large flesh-coloured patches of skin which spread over his body alarmingly fast. His eyes darkened and he smiled sickly. It was Shukaku.

The sand lay still all around her, but it suddenly came to life again. Two words were snarled out into the night and pain erupted from every part of her body. "DESERT COFFIN!"

And suddenly, she couldn't breath. She was surrounded by sand, and it was crushing her lungs, her arms, her wings, her entire body. It went up her nose, under her mask, and filled her mouth to silence her before she could scream. She hadn't felt this pain in years, and it was almost good to have her body scream at her again. She felt blood burst from her mouth as the demon snarled another word. "DESERT GR-" but he stopped and a growl cut through the air, turning into a shriek of pain. _I... I can't...see...a thing..._

But she didn't need to. Suddenly everything went silent and just as she was about to give up, the sand slowly fell away, leaving her coughing it up along with a large amount of blood. But her mask remained on. She never took it off while fighting.

In front of her lay the form of Gaara. In his chest and arm where the needles had entered were three large lumps. Blood leaked from his eyes, his mouth, his nose, and even his ears. His brain had imploded and it wasn't a pretty sight. Behind him, the gourd of sand was shattered. Koumei regained her breathing and stood, walking over to his body and lifting it with difficulty. She had underestimated him.

Koumei spread her wings, which were luckily undamaged, and took off back towards the stone fortress. Her flight was slow and laboured because of the extra weight, and her lungs screamed at her to rest a moment. But she wanted to get this over with, and continued forward.

She found the Anbu guard in the same place, and he nodded silently, leading her back down without even offering to carry the grotesque corpse for her. She silently sighed and followed him.

When she arrived in the meeting room, however, the Anbu did take the body from her. He took it behind the curtain and there was a hurried conversation. Koumei waited patiently.

When the Anbu came out, he handed her a small animal skin bag full of coins. There was about onehundred fifty dollars in there. And that was less than a tenth of the promised price.

"How much is in here?" she asked angrily.

"One hundred dollars. It's all you deserve. Now leave."

Koumei stood and was going to argue, but decided that she did not have the energy to fight all of them, let alone the Kazekage, so she folded her wings close, glared at them, and turned away, stomping out of the chamber and back onto the roof.

When she got up, she sighed. This mission had taken longer than planned. She sighed again, storing away her money bag, and took off again, forcing her tired wings to fly her away from this horrible sandy wasteland. She headed towards the mountains, looking for a place to sleep. Once out of and far away from the Hidden Sand, she found a large tree to sleep on. So she simply sat down with her back against the trunk, and fell asleep on a particularly large branch about fiften feet up. _What a horrible day._

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When she awoke early next morning, her neck and shoulders were screaming. Her wings were wrapped tightly around herself, and she wasn't cold, but that changed when she lifted them and all of the cold air entered her pocket of warmth, stealing it away from her. She shook herself and rubbed her arms, stretching to loosen the knot in her neck.

Koumei spent no time gathering her weapons and as she stretched once more, her stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten in the last few days, but her body was used to long periods without food. The only thing she'd had besides water was a cup of coffee and now her appetite was beginning to catch up to her. _Just a few more days_, she pleaded inwardly. Her stomached stopped growling and she spread her wings, taking off once more.

She spent the whole day flying, mostly just riding thermals and gliding to conserve energy, and the ground soon became covered in snow once more. The sun set, and she repeated her ritual of sleeping uncomfortably in another large tree, waking early and taking off towards the mountains again.

When she arrived at the foot, finally, she spent about an hour travelling the length of the mountain range until she found what she needed. A large waterfall, surrounded by stone houses and patrolled by Anbu. The Hidden Waterfall Village. She approached the nearest guard, landing on the walls of stone and folding her wings. She spoke up as he looked at her unbeleivingly.

"Please take me to Hayabusa Kawa. I am the Moon-nin that spent half a year here before, training her, and I came to complete her training. I have the contract from the Mizukage." She pulled out a light purple scroll and handed it to him. He bowed and muttered a 'Follow me, please' as he turned and walked away.

Koumei followed the Anbu guard as he jumped across the rooftops towards the waterfall. Upon reaching it, he told her to wait outside and left her with another Anbu, as he walked behind the falling water. Fifteen minutes later, he came out followed by a middle-aged woman. Well, older than Koumei at least, being twenty-eight. She had short, dark purplish hair tied back in a loose ponytail and oddly red eyes, and she was wearing a black and light blue Anbu uniform. She smiled at Koumei as she met her eyes through the mask.

"So, you've finally come back, Koumei-san?" she said softly, still smiling. Koumei nodded. "Has the Mizukage allowed me to take you away for training? I brought the contract."

"Hai. I can leave whenever you're ready. I have all I need." Koumei looked towards her large sack which she carried over her shoulder.

"Good, because I need to stop at the Lightning to get the other Wing-nin. Let's go."

The Waterfall-nin nodded and put down her bag for a moment. She held her hands in the seal for 'bird' and her eyes closed tightly. Two wings, light blue streaked with dark blue erupted from her shoulders, but she did not cry out as Koumei did. She simply grunted and opened her eyes, taking up her sac again and following Koumei into the afternoon sun. They were followed closely by the raven Kuro, and a brown fish-owl, Kawa's bird summon.

The two kunoichi travelled in silence for the remainder of the day, travelling farther and farther north until they reached a forest of thick pines where they set up camp in a large tree. Kawa cheerily opened her sac and took out food which Koumei eyed hungrily.

"You can have some if you like," said Kawa as she ate happily. But Koumei shook her head. "It's yours, I couldn't take it."

"Suit yourself. Help yourself if you change your mind."

Koumei smiled behind her mask. She enjoyed Kawa's company. She was a very talented Medical Ninja who also used Senbon as a primary weapon. Her powers might have even rivalled Tsunade's. Koumei turned towards the tree trunk and drifted off to sleep, dreaming her usual nightmares of ice and blood, and listening to Kawa munch contentedly on bread.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Koumei woke when she felt Kawa's hand gently shaking her shoulder.

"We should go now if we want to make it there by nightfall. It's bad enough that we have to spend any time with Sora-baka at all!" she laughed quietly and helped Koumei up. "Come on, let's go."

They spent Koumei's fourth day travelling in silence again, occasionally asking a few questions or starting a small conversation. When the Hidden Lightning came into view, Kawa spoke up again.

"I wonder if he's changed at all. I hope so, because I don't know if I can put up with his comments for any amount of time." she paused, looking at the unresponsive form of Koumei. "You look tired. Give me the scroll and wait here. I'll go get him."

Koumei gladly did so, and watched as Kawa left her in a tree. There was a little snow here, not much, but enough to make her shiver. Her comrade returned a moment later followed by a gliding form with dark blue wings, shot through with black. He was actually strikingly handsome. He had black hair which he tied his Lightning head protector around, bandana style. His eyes were odd. His left eye was crystal blue, while his right was a pallid pink. He was almost always grinning about something. He hadn't changed a bit.

"Hey, beautiful," he said casually as Koumei flew up to join them.

"Shut it, Sora-baka," she said rudely. A large black eagle followed behind him.

"Hey, hey, hey! Easy! I love you too."

"You can't hit on two girls at the same time, baka-san," said Kawa laughingly. She'd obviously shared the same conversation with him moments ago. Koumei smiled behind the mask. _Nope, hasn't changed in the least._

The trio continued on for three days like this, bickering and ignoring Sora's complaints. Koumei was now really hungry. Kawa had forced her to eat once, but other than a single meal, she had still eaten nothing all week. She was used to it though. Her adoptive father, the Tsukikage, had never fed her. Maybe a meal every week or so, but her village was poor and needed all the funds they could get.

They finally arrived back at Konoha at noon on the eighth day from Koumei's departure, and almost as soon as they landed in the training field, Koumei collapsed in exaughstion and hunger, lack of energy. She passed out and was caught by a 'lucky' Sora as she fell. There were two other Wing-nin in the clearing, and they came over as they spotted the Lightning and the Waterfall, along with the unconcious Koumei.

"What happened to her? And who the Hell are you two?" asked Kasei defensively. _If they did this to her..._

"Oh, you two must be Kasei and Genma, ne? We were Koumei's students and I guess she wanted to finish our training for some reason, so she came and brought us here. I'm Hayabusa Kawa, and this baka is Washi Sora. She led us here, but then she..." Kawa trailed off as she knelt down by the limp form of Koumei. Her trained Medical hands moved quickly across her body, hovering inches from the skin. She removed her mask and sighed.

"I swear. This kunoichi never listens. She doesn't know what's good for her. I don't think she's eaten in about a week. She is so stubborn and never accepts help from anyone. She simply ran out of energy," said Kawa. Koumei's wings dissappeared in a flurry of golden brown. "Do you two have somewhere to take her? She needs rest."

Genma looked at Kasei and pointed at him. Kasei sighed. "You can bring her to my place. She was staying there anyways."

"Oh, I get it. So you to are together, huh? I guess that means I can't follow her around anymore..." said a disappointed Sora.

Kasei snorted and took Koumei's limp form from him, shooting him a dirty glance. Sora grinned back. The four Wing ninjas lifted off, following Kasei to the outskirts of Konoha towards his home.


	14. Chapter 14 The Message

Kawa followed Kasei upstairs into his neat house and into Koumei's temporary room. It was very bare, and the only things aside from the bed and dresser, were the many weapons on atop of them. She rushed ahead and took off the weapons on the bed as Kasei lay the Moon-nin down. Kawa began her examination.

The medical ninja took off Koumei's vest and folded it neatly on the dresser. She checked her pulse and breathing, and forced one of her eyes open. But then she jerked back suddenly.

"What the-?"

"What is it?" asked Genma. He looked over at Koumei's unconcious form.

"Her eyes...They are filled with blood. Look."

She leaned over again and forced her eye open. Kasei leaned in closer with the rest of them. He gasped. Her usually light brown eyes were slpotched and dotted with dark black liquid. And whats was worse, it was _underneath_ the surface.

"Has she been taking her medicine?" asked Kawa, closing her eye again.

Kasei looked up. "What medicine?"

"I thought so. Koumei you baka. You're killing yourself."

She brought chakra to her hands and passed them over Koumei's chest, over her tanktop, and back. Then she paused, letting it hover for a moment. Koumei's eyes twitched and she removed her hand. She opened her bloodstined eyes and looked around.

"Oh, shit. What did I do now..." she closed her eyes again. Ice. Blood. Needles, Haku. When she opened them, she saw more blood. On the walls and her hands and over her assembled comrades. She was trapped. If she closed them it was back to nightmares, and if she left them open it was more blood.

"Why is there so much blood?" she shook her head, trying to dislodge the image from her mind. It didn't work.

"Koumei, have you been taking that stuff I gave you?" asked Kawa carefully watching her.

"What? Uh... Gomen- I gave it to a friend."

"Huh? A friend? Who?"

"Hayate. He needed it more than me."

"Well get it back! You're killing yourself. Again."

"Uh- Ano... Hayate died and I don't know where it is." She fiddled with her hands as she sat up in her bed.

"Well, then you'll have to get some more then won't you. I can make some more, but it'll take awhile."

Koumei looked horrified. "N-no. It's okay. I don't need it."

"What do ya mean you don't need it? You are_ internally bleeding_. It's more serious than you think, Koumei."

"Ano... It tastes horrible. I practically pass out everytime it gets near me..." She continued looking down and fiddling with her fingers. There was a moments silence, before Kawa and Sora broke out laughing.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! YOU ARE SO PATHETIC!!! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A LITTLE KID! HAHAHAHA!" Sora tripped over the corner of the bed and rolled on the floor, laughing harder. Kawa tried to stifle her laughter, but ended up snorting loudly. This caused even Genma to smile. Koumei was crossing her arms and glaring at the new arrivals angrily.

"Just because you two are almost ten years older than me doesn't mean you can make fun of me. It's true. The stuff tastes like something died in it and sat there for a few decades. You try drinking it. I don't know how Hayate did it."

This resulted in Sora laughing harder on the floor. Kawa eventually managed to stifle her laughter, and kicked the Lightning-nin in the ribs. He began crying and laughing, harder than ever, tears running down his bright red cheeks. Koumei got out of bed, dangling her feet off the edge for a moment before standing.

"I'm gonna go get some food. I haven't-"

"You haven't eaten in about a week, ne? Why?" interupted Kawa, placing her hands on her hips.

"I didn't have any money. But now I have enough to feed me for about two weeks."

"Only? How much did you get for killing that sand demon anyways?"

"Uhh..." Koumei turned and began walking away. "100 dollars..." she was stopped by Sora, who grabbed her arm and spun her around. He had stopped laughing finally.

"That's all!? The Kazekage promised you five thousand! Don't tell me you let him push you around again?" he said releasing her arm. Koumei brushed past him and left.

"Honestly, that baka, she never stands up for herself," Kawa shook her head and turned back to the others. "Uhh... Where do we stay? Koumei never told us..."

"...I guess you can stay with me also." said Kasei slowly.

"YAY! Can I share a room with Kawa?" asked Sora excitedly, jumping up and down like a little kid.

"UGH! Please don't make me! Ah- Genma, you look nice, can I stay with you instead? Please?" she asked as she ducked behind him.

"What? Ah, fine" mumbled Genma. Kasei noted that he probably had no clue what just happened and that he was just agreeing because a question was directed at him.

"I have to go follow Koumei. You two should come with me and Genma, because we need to keep track of you also." said Kasei turning towards the door. "At nightfall, I'll take you to the Hokage. Do you have a scroll from your Kages?" there were two 'Hai's' and Kasei walked out. "Alright then, let's go."

They drew in their wings and headed out after Koumei.

"Do you always follow her around like this?" asked Kawa as they jumped across the rooftops silently. The sun was low in the sky, but it still glistened brightly off of the snow.

"Hokage's orders," replied Kasei unconversationally. They eventually found Koumei sitting at the Ramen bar with a large bowl of ramen in front of her. There were two empty ones beside that one. Suprisingly enough, Naruto was not there. Koumei finished quickly, obviously famished, and paid for another bowl, which she ate just as fast. But it was her last one. She thanked the owners and left. But instead of heading back to Kasei's house, she went to the Yamanaka flower shop.

The four shinobi waited in silence until their youngest comrade emerged. She was carrying a white rose wrapped in red cellophane paper. She headed off to the memorial and set the rose down. It was for Hayate. When she turned and left, still not towards Kasei's, Genma snorted lightly.

"What's so funny?" asked Kasei, turning.

Genma pointed to the memorial. The flower sat alone there, but a peice of white-cream coloured card stuck up beside it. "It says 'Get well soon'. Hayate was always sick. It's just kinda funny. I never knew she had a sense of humour."

Kasei smiled. _Maybe she's not as cold as she says she is_, he thought as he took off after her again. He found her standing, or leaning, against the side of a building. She had pulled her arms into her vest. Suddenly, Kasei spotted a brown trenchcoat sneaking around the corner of the building. It was Mitarashi Anko. _Uh-oh_, he though. He grimmaced as she jumped out from her hiding spot, causing Koumei to land roughly in the snow.

The loud jounin said something he couldn't hear from the distance he was at. Anko helped Koumei up and brushed off the snow. Unknown to her, while Koumei was down, she had made a large snowball and hid it behind her back. As they embraced, she stuffed it down the back of Anko's trenchcoat, resulting in a loud scream that they could hear from all the way to their current hiding spot. A snowball fight ensued as the sun set.

After a while, Anko declared herself winner and the two kunoichi said goodbye. After Anko left, Koumei spent a few minutes brushing off snow.

"Geez. I didn't know she knew the meaning of fun. She sure changes quickly." said Kasei.

"Maybe she's going crazy. Who was that cute little ninja, anyways?" asked Sora interestedly.

There were three groans, and Kawa whacked him over the head.

Finally Koumei was heading back, slowly dragging her feet through the snow. The four ninja were about to leave and arrive first, when suddenly she stopped. Her head spun around, and she drew four senbon, taking a fighting stance and looked behind her, down the dark alleyway. Kasei followed her gaze, and saw nothing. Suddenly, a kunai came from behind, and she spun around just in time to catch it with her free hand. There was a note attached to it. She began reding it over.

"Eagles Eyes no Jutsu" whispered Kasei preforming one handed seals. His vision became sharper as he squinted at the neat writing.

_Kill me if you can. I know you want to. Make the nightmares go away. Your dreams of Ice and Blood. Come and fight us. Where he died. Perhaps you can reclaim what is rightfully yours. When we beat you, He will control you once more. Kill me if you can._

Koumei suddenly threw the kunai away, and to Kasei's suprise, the note exploded before it hit the ground. _A jutsu...?_

"What did it say?" asked Kawa in a quiet whisper. Kasei relayed the message to the other ninja, as they became more and more confused. Kasei realized Koumei had left.

"Quick. We have to beat her back."

They shot off into the darkness across the roof tops, finally reaching Kasei's small house on the edge of the town. There were no lights on. He quickly entered and led them inside, flicking on the lights and taking off his shoes. A moment later, Koumei knocked lightly on the door. He opened it, moving aside as she entered. Fear was easily seen flashing in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, closing the door.

"It's nothing. I have to go somewhere tomorrow though. You may come if you wish." Koumei stumbled slowly upstairs to her room, closing her door lightly behind her.

"Genma, take these two to the Hokage. I need some sleep. Thanks." said Kasei, quickly disappearing to his own room before Genma could complain. Genma was left with the two other ninja.

"Wha-fine. Come on, let's go" he moved his toothpick fro one corner of his mouth to the other and sighing. He opened the door and led them out into the night. _This guy is kinda cute,_ thought Kawa. Genma looked over to her and she smiled nervously, and continued walking.

Upstairs, Kasei fell back onto his bed. He sat there for awhile, staring up at the ceiling, before getting up. He absent mindedly walked silently over to Koumei's room, opening the dorr slightly and looking in. Koumei was curled up on top of the bed covers. He opened the door fully and crept in.

He sat on an overturned garbage bin beside her bed and leaned back aginst the wall for a moment. He then sat up straight and looked over at Koumei. She was facing away from him, and her hair was down, falling loosely over her face. Kasei sat for a moment before leaning forward. He lifted his hand and brushed away the loose, dark strands from her face, peering intently at her troubled expression. He leaned closer, before stopping himself.

_What am I doing? I shouldn't even be in here. If she wakes up..._ But he did not pull back, he simply remained frozen above her. He took in every detail on her face. Her smooth skin, her nose and lips, and her long eyelashes. He noticed that he was only a few inches from her, and pulled back. _Do I...? I...I... I shouldn't do this._ His better judgement got the best of him, and he stood up. As he left the room, he heard voices outside, and heard Sora entering the house. _How'd he do that? The door was locked._

Kasei quickly left the room and went downstairs to show him to his room. In the darkness of her room, Koumei's eyes snapped open. She recalled the image of Kasei's face close to hers, and still felt the warmth of his breath on her cheek. His brown hair almost tickling her face, and his grey eyes examining her intently. She blinked a few times, before smiling and curling up tighter, falling asleep.


	15. Chapter 15 The Naruto Bridge

Chirakka: Uh... I decided to ressurect this fic at the requests of my friends.... hides behind computer please don't hurt me....

* * *

Koumei woke the next day and sat up, looking out the window as she yawned.. It was snowing. Alot. She could barely see a few feet past the window frame, and the only thing she could make out was the shadows of a few nearby trees. She lazily flopped back onto her pillow and streched, yawning again. Then she rememberd the letter.

She quickly jumped out of bed and dashed over to the bathroom down the hall. She could hear voices downstairs as she stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower. When she came out a few minutes later, she quickly dried her hair, which reached down past her shoulders when wet, and dressed into her torn up uniform, wondering if she had enough money to buy some new clothes.

Koumei stumbled out of the bathroom and headed downstairs quickly, before turning around and heading back to her room. Once there she grabbed her weapons pouch and mask, which she slung loosely over her shoulder by the strings. Once again she headed downstairs, where she found Sora complaining about one thing or another, and Kasei arguing with him._ At least Kasei can tolerate him. He's lucky to be a guy. That way, Sora won't follow him around,_ thought Koumei as she dropped into a chair by the table. The two men glanced at her, before continuing their arguement.

"But, how did you unlock it? I remember locking the door _and_ bolting it!" argued Kasei as he made his coffee. Sora laughed and held up something. It dangled and glinted as it swung from side to side. They were Kasei's house keys.

"Hey!" yelled Kasei, spinning around and abandoning his steaming coffe.

"Give them back! How'd you get those?"

"How else would I get them? I stole them, of course."

"What!?" asked Kasei as he snatched them away from the grinning Lightning-nin.

"Theivery is my speciality, dobe," said Sora grinning. It was true. On top of his womanizing nature, he was a dirty thief. And a good one at that.

"Was that really nescessary, Sora?" asked Koumei from where she was laying back on the chair.

"Of course it was, Koumei-chan," he said, looking over to her as she made a disgusted face.

"Are you two done? I need to get somewhere," said Koumei, avoiding looking at Sora.

"Yeah, let's go," said Kasei, downing the rest of his coffee. He grabbed two katanas from a shelf, and strapped them across his shoulders. As Koumei stood, Sora draped his arm around her shoulers

"Ugh. Get away from me Sora," she said, pushing his arm off with some difficulty.

She walked over to the door and put on her sandals, before unlocking it and heading out followed by Sora and then by Kasei. Kasei dug in his pockets for his keys, but didn't find them. Sora held them up in front of his face mockingly, and he snatched them away once more.

"Hey!"

The three companions trudged through the knee-deep snow, which was falling thicker than ever, in the general direction of Genma's apartment. It took about twenty minutes, when it should have taken only around ten. When they finally arrived, after passing it a few times due to the low visability, they headed up to the third floor, knocked on the door and waited.

Finally, an exaughsted looking Kawa opened the door. She invited them into the small, messy apartment, and they joined her at the table.

"Ugh. can one of you wake up Genma? I tried for about fifteen minutes. Honestly. Fifteen minutes straight, with no response," said Kawa, leaning back in her chair and covering her face.

Kasei stood and went into Genma's room, followed by Koumei and Sora. Kawa remained at the table.

Once inside, they immediately noticed a difference from the rest of the apartment. Genma's room, unlike the others, was neatly organized. His clothes, along with two extra jounin vests, hung in a closet. The walls were covered in different weapons, organized into catagories of blades, throwing weapons, specialized weapons, and a shelf of neatly labelled poisons and potions in small stoppered bottles. Genma lay in his bed, facing the wall and wearing completely green pajamas.

Kasei walked over, and instead of trying to wake him, he examined him, before stepping out of the room with a muttered 'be right back.' He returned a moment later with a glass of water filled with ice cubes, which he held over Genma's head.

"Isn't that a bit drastic, Kasei?" questioned Sora, eyeing him uneasily. Kasei did not reply, but continued tipping the glass. An ice cube fell out and hit Genma's forehead, bouncing onto his pillow. When he did not respond, it was followed by the rest of the glasses contents. Genma shook his head and turned over, still sleeping. Kasei sighed and left again, this time returning with a steaming glass.

"Uh... Are you sure that's a good idea? You'll burn him," said Koumei uneasily. Kasei looked over for a moment before turning back. "Trust me, Koumei, it's the only way. How'd you think I got him to get up and train everyday?"

Kasei moved back over to the sleeping jounin and pulled off the covers, revealing the rest of Genma's green pajamas. Without hesitation, he dumped the glass of hot water over Genma's shoulders.

"GET UP, GENMA!" he yelled into Genma's ear, reinforcing each word with a whack to his head. Genma slowly opened an eye. He looked lazily at Kasei before opening the other one and sitting up. He frowned when he found himself drenched.

"What was that for? Geez..."

Kasei went over to the closet and threw a uniform at Genma's head, who was too lazy to dodge or catch it and it ended up in his face.

"Get up. Were leaving in fifteen minutes, so get dressed." Kasei left the room, followed by the other two ninja. They sat down at the table, rejoining Kawa, and waited.

"Huh, he woke up... So, where are we going, anyways?" asked Kawa as she played with a loose strand of hair.

"Uhh... I guess you'll see soon. Be prepared for a battle though..." said Koumei absent-mindedly. Genma stepped into the room, toothpick in mouth, and eyed them lazily.

"Ok, let's get this over with," said Koumei. She stood and headed for the door, followed closely by the four Wing-nin.

It took them about half an hour to trudge through the knee-deep snow, and reach the outskirts of the village. Now they had to trudge through snow _and_ trees.

"When we arrive, I want you to be prepared. If things get rough, don't hesitate to make a full transformation. We're not going to be fighting pushovers. Activate your eyes and wings as soon as we get there, and ready your weapons. These people won't hesitate to fight dirty or ambush us." Koumei instructed as she led the way. There were no replies from the other four as they trudged along in silence.

"Also, I want you to use every advantage you have. Activate your bloodlines, except Genma because you don't have any, and use your most powerful jutsus. I guess you shouldn't either, Sora, you'll either end up killing all of us, or using all of your chakra before the battle is over. Strike to kill," she said as they neared their destination. The snow fell thick around them, obscuring their vision. Koumei brought up her mask and fastened it to her head, before sliding it down over her face. Above them flew five birds, led by a large black raven.

They came out of the tree cover, and neared a large looming structure.

"The Naruto Bridge?" asked Genma. Then he remembered Kasei's words. _Where he died._

Koumei stopped and the four ninja fell into a battle formation beside her. She stood at the front, with Sora and Kawa behind her to the right, and Genma and Kasei behind her to her left. Silence.

"Where is he?" she hissed, not turning. She stared straight ahead, glaring through the snow with no success.

"Eagle's Eyes no jutsu," she muttered. "No use."

There was another moment of silence, as she thought about her options. "Sora."

Koumei turned her head slightly and adressed him again. "Sora, please remove the snow. But use as little chakra as possible, you'll need the rest."

The other ninja watched in amazement as Sora stepped forward. He raised his hands in an unfamiliar seal and closed his eyes, concentrating. Suddenly they snapped open, as he yelled out, "Release!"

Then the snow simply vanished. In the middle of the brigde stood five figures. And the middle one was... Uchiha Itachi?

Koumei let out a snarl and stepped forward. Her hands flew to her weapons pouch, and came out equipped with a pair of silver nekotes. "Get ready!" She called behind her, as Kasei drew his katanas.

Her comrades took off their vests, revealing open-backed shirts. They then released the seals, and five pairs of wings stretched into the winter air. Kasei readied his katanas, Kawa pulled out her senbon, Sora attatched his katars, and Genma produced a long chain with a curved blade fastened to each end, a kasurigama. Laughter cut through the air.

"I see you've brought your students, _sensei_, but I brought some of mine also. Meet some of my students, Koumei,"said Itachi quietly, indicating the four ninja on either side of him.

"I have what you want, Moon-nin, but first defeat my little friends. Here's a taste of what I obtained from the Akatsuki." He held up a large scroll, painted dark blue and decorated with the night sky.

"You-!" Koumei set her fighting stance and raised her nekotes.

"Ah, ah, ah. I'm not fighting, so don't pick one with me," he said, grinning. "I brought someone to fight you for me." Itachi smiled and stepped aside to reaveal a nameless person laying in the snow behind him, dead. Koumei caught on quickly, and under her mask her face lost all colour.

"You couldn't. Only Orochimaru-" she said unbelievingly.

"Orochimaru-_sama_ gave me a little gift before he left. You forget who you are speaking to, Koumei." Itachi stepped back in front of the body and made a long string of seals. A large wooden wall appeard in front of him and Koumei threw a barrage of shuriken at it, trying in vain to stop it's progress.

The front of the wooden box fell foreward, revealing a small form inside. Brown pants, a dark blue robe lined in white, and a red and white Hunter-nin mask.

Haku stepped forward from his coffin, and opened his eyes, immediately spotting Koumei. He ran forward, disobeying his contract with the summoner, towards a stunned Koumei.

"Koumei-neesan!"

Suddenly, lines of chakra wrapped around his neck and arms, stopping him dead in his tracks. He did not struggle as Itachi walked forwards with a kunai held in his hand. There was a peice of parchment attatched to it.

"Haku! Itachi! Quit playing with lives!" Koumei was now shaking visibly, either from fear or the cold or both.

"Gomen, Oneesan..." whispered Haku as Itachi embedded the kunai into the back of his neck.

"Kill them."

Itachi jumped backwards and disappeared as the battle began, and the bridge was once again stained in red.


	16. Chapter 16 Kawa's Battle

There was a moments silence as the opponents sized eachother up. The ninja they were up against appeared to all be related in some way, looking exactly alike except for their clothing and weapons. They all had jet black hair, which glinted slightly in the low light. Their skin was pale and their eyes flashed blood red, like Kawa's, and they were all well muscled and of medium height. What struck them the most, though, was their age. They all seemed to be around Haku's age

Kasei's opponent carried a giant sword which was wickedly curved and twisted, and was glowing red. It was abour five feet long and it's user rested it across his shoulders. Sora's wore a pair of large cats claws, wearing a white trenchcoat, and was the only one crouching low, glaring. Genma's opponent carried a medium sized metal pole, with a blade extending from each end, and wore a dark blue shinobi outfit. Kawa's opponent, however, carried no weapons, but instead wore a bright yellow jacket laden with small kunai, well over two hundred. Haku was glaring angrily at his sister, who overcame her shock.

"They have fully developed Oookami Bloodlines!" hissed Kawa. "That means they also have the ability to make full transformations, and their senses are fully developed. Not good..." Kawa's wings twitched uneasily as the rest of them, except for Koumei stuck in her staring contest, looked towards her in confusement.

Suddenly, two cries split through the air as the battle began.

"Makyou HyouShou HiJutsu!" the two siblings made a series of one-handed seals, but something in the jutsu went wrong. The dome of mirrors was larger than it was supposed to be. It surrounded everyone. The mirrors were not crystal blue, either. They shimmered black and silver, as the images of Koumei and Haku alternated squares of dark ice.

As the people around her charged forward, Haku and Koumei vanishing and re-appearing here and there, Kawa remained frozen to her spot. She needed to be far away to use her weapons anyways. _These ninja have the same bloodline as me. How could that be...? Unless they're members of the Ookami clan, but very few have ever mastered the bloodline. I thought I was the only one to master it in my lifetime._

"I don't know how you have the Ookami's Bloodline, but it's useless against me." Kawa hissed, raising her senbon. She felt the uncomfortable edges of numerous kunai, shuriken, and senbon in her two overloaded weapons pouch pressing against her body. This was going to be a dangerous battle.

In exactly the same moment, senbon met kunai in midair, clattering to the ground. Kawa dashed to the right, and threw six more kunai, taking to the air for a moment. Although the dome resticted her movements, it was large enough to allow her to manuever in battle and avoid interfering with other the battles.

She threw her senbon, aiming for the ninja's face, but he simply moved aside, quickly reaching into his yellow jacket and returning fire with eight kunai. Kawa dodged with little difficulty, and the two opponents threw two weapons in the exact same motion, both making a few seals, and multiplying their projectiles by around forty and showering eachother in metal.

Kawa dashed off to her right again, but three kunai found her shoulder and her leg. She looked over to her opponent, who had only two of her senbon imbedded in his right arm, on the pressure points, rendering it useless. _Only two?_

She ripped out the three kunai, forcing chakra over her wounds to heal them quickly. Her opponent did the same with her two senbon and they faced eachother once more, thinking the same thing. _This is useless, I can't land a decent blow..._

They stood for a moment longer, before charging eachother and engaging in bluringly fast taijutsu combat. The ninja in the yellow jacket landed a blow to the side of her head, knocking her back a few feet. She snarled angrily and forced out chakra, turning her hands into daggers. Her body was soon covered in electric blue and silver fur and feathers, which stretched over her clothing and ending with a dark purple beak that glinted dimly in the winter light. Her eyes retained their same blood red colour, and she bounded towards the ninja in the yellow jacket.

He dodged away, and to her suprise, he smiled. Suddenly his face contorted, twisting into a long, pointed snout covered in short blonde hairs. Ears sprouted from his head and his chest enlarged. Four well-muscled legs, complete with elegantly curved black claws, replaced his previous apendages. As Kawa screeched and pounced again, a long bushy tail completed the transformation.

The yellow demon wolf, too large to be a normal one, met her in midair as they clawed and snapped at eachother. The wolf found her throat and struggled to sink his teeth past the thick covering of feathers, as Kawa's back legs tried to split open his stomach. They rolled in the air and landed with a thus on the ground, with the wolf on top, snapping at her legs.

Kawa suddenly brought up her wings, enforcing the edges with chakra, and landed a blow on either side of the wolf demon, cutting through his fur and causing his shoulders to bleed slightly, staining his golden fur red. He snarled and his jaws closed onto her throat with a suffocating force, locking in place. Kawa felt many tiny points begin to penetrate, drawing blood which made the wolf demon growl with pleasure as the taste reached his mouth.

She forced herself upright and swung the demon around, slashing and clawing at it. But it wouldn't release and she was running out of breath. _'Use every advantage you have,'_ Kawa recalled Koumei's words before the battle. She saw Koumei dashing in and out of mirrors, and avoiding hurting her brother. She stopped thrashing and let the wolf demon dangle from her throat as she tried gasping for breath. _Every... advantage._

Suddenly, Kawa abandoned her griffin form as her wings were soaked in black. Her large, well-built form was exchanged for a lean, well-muscled one, and sleek black fur coated her body. Her eyes remained crimson. The sudden change in size caused the other demon wolf's jaws to slacken and she used the opening to jerk backwards.

Her body felt light and fast, and her senses had sharpened incredibly. The surrounding battles, which she had so far managed to ignore, now cut into her mind at least one hundred times louder and clearer. As she skidded to a halt, away from the other wolf's death grip, she realized her wings remained. _Strange,_ she thought, _but useful!_ She launched her lighter, faster, and sleeker body int the air and dived at her opponent. She landed catlike in the place he had been moments before, and charged after him. As they chased eachother around the inside of the dome, weaving in and out of other battles, Kawa saw other wolves ranging in colour all the way from almost as black as her, to pure white.

As her attention shifted back to where she was running, she saw she was headed straight for the golden coloured wolf. She skidded to a halt and quickly brought up her wings, slashing at him before folding them around her sleek form to block his attack.

She was hit hard, but held her ground. He hit again and again, causing blood to flow freely from both her wings, and the joints attaching them to her body, which were being put under great strain by the jolts. But it was just to get the rhythm of his blows. She counted, biting back the pain, _one, two, ugh, three, four.... FIVE!_

She flung her wings open in between one of his blows, forcing him backwards, and before he could react, she forced a clawed hand, not a fur-covered paw, into his stomach. He gave a yelp of pain, and lashed out. But he stopped moving when another talon plunged into his flesh, and then both of them twisted, ripping out his fur, staining it red, painting the ground. He slumped down and returned to his normal form, which was sickly twisted and ripped open. Kawa shook the blood off her hands and slumped down beside the dead shinobi, exaughtsted.

She released her form, but her wings remained. They were severely injured, and she couldn't draw them in. She examined herself, making sure she wasn't severely injured. Her hands rubbed at her neck, whick was bleeding slightly from about fifteen small holes in it. Luckily none had found a main artery. She relaxed for a moment, sighing, until...

"Kasei!!!" It was Koumei. Kawa stood and spun around to look in the direction of the voice. Her eyes widened as she stared unbelievingly at the sight before her. _Oh no,_ she thought.


	17. Chapter 17 Sora's Battle

Sora ran forward, bringing down his katars onto his opponent's cats claws. Sparks flew as the two ninja fought to overpower eachother. His opponent was dressed completely in white, he noticed as he thought_ let's stain that nice clean outfit._ Sora jumped back suddenly, causing the other to pitch forward, but he quickly regained his balance and launched himself at Sora. He brought up his katars to block, sending more sparks into the air.

Holding his opponenent with his left hand, he withdrew the katar on his right hand, bringing into it a wickedly curved kunai and slashing it across the white-robed shinobi's face. The enemy pulled back just in time to receive a scratch on his left cheek, blood dripping onto his white shoulders, painting it red. Sora disengaged and laughed at the expression on the white shinobi's face.

Pulling back further, Sora gasped for breath, fighting back his laughter. "P-priceless!"

The infuriated shinobi charged at Sora, catching him off guard and imbedding his cats claws deep into Sora's left shoulder, dragging it downwards. But Sora gathered his wits before the shinobi could pull out, and his katar found the white ninja's right thigh, staining his white tranchcoat red. Sora jumped back again and paused, first examining his shoulder, and then examining his handiwork on the other shinobi.

There was a pause, before Sora began laughing again. "Now you've stolen the 4th Hokage's style!" he said, looking at the white trenchcoat with the bottom stained red. But he stopped as he noticed the wound seal itself, stopping the blood. _Huh?_ he thought.

"Shut up!" said the shinobi, finally embracing the fact that this wing-nin was exceedingly annoying. In his white, and red, trenchcoat, the ninja fell into a crouch and sprung at Sora, who dodged again. The white shinobi launched in to a series of frenzied attacks, that Sora had no time to counter, so he instead ended up dodging over and over. But he was running out of stamina and patience.

Before Sora could think of something to do, or say, he heard words that sent fear into his heart, and all too faniliar seals. "Kaze..."

He jumped back and readied himself. "...no..."

Thinking quickly, he did the only thing he could. He brought up his wings, folding one tightly across his back, and wrapping the other one over the front of his body "Eagle's Protection!" he yelled before the jutsu could be completed. Too late. "Yaiba!"

The air was knocked out of his lungs as the blade of air smashed into him, first cradleing around his body, and then shredding his wings, sending blue and purple feathers flying everywhere. It stole the breath away from him, sucking air out of his lungs until there was no more, where it moved onto blood. It suddenly stopped and Sora stumbled further back.

As Sora gasped deperately for air, he was struck again and again, knocking more blood out of him. Head, stomach, jaw, ribs, ribs again, side and then his neck. He finally fell down, but thought better of it and stood again, raising his bloodied wings. But he stopped. _I won't be able to stand the pain of a full transformation. It would knock me out..._

He dodged another attack and extended his katars, raising them out on either side and jumping into the air. He landed a few feet away and snapped his wings forward, causing more feathers to fly off. Holding his hands in a seal, he sent them flying forward, chakra visible around each individual feather, as they caught the blood covered shinobi, some passing completely through him.

The shinobi was enraged by now, and he shook off the wounds as if they were nothing, suddenly snarling. He pounced animal-like towards Sora, and in mid-air he changed from a bloody white ninja into a bloody white wolf. _Great. This is just great,_ thought Sora as he dodged it quickly.

The wolf sank it's teeth into Sora's arm, who grunted in pain. But before the jaws could lock, he dragged his arm painfully out, sliding his katar through the wolf's mouth and slicing the tongue clean off. As he felt the last part of his hand slide out, there were a series of cracks as his fingers broke from the strain. The wolf yelped and slid backwards, but Sora was spent. He needed chakra, and his bird was outside of the dome and he couldn't draw any from him.

_Then there is only one way... Koumei said not to, but I have to._ He raised his hands, drawing in his katars, and forming his bloodied fingers into a series of slow and painful seals. "Draw," he rasped, feeling blood build up in his throat.

Above him, in the spaces between the mirrors, it began to rain, turning the snow into ice. There were flashes of lightning as Sora jumped back and held his arms above his head. A bolt of lightning, a spike of ice, and a torrent of rain simultaniously impacted his body, but instead of hurting him or killing him, he absorbed it. When the elements cleared away, Sora was giving of an extremely powerful dark purple glow.

He launced himself at the white wolf so quickly, he was almost impossible to follow. Out came the katars again, surrounded in the same purple glow, and they plunged into the wolf's chest. It yelped again, and returned to it's normal form. And then the wounds simply healed.

Sora was becoming frustrated. He sliced open the neck of his opponent, who tried to dodge, and then sent a katar clean through his stomach. But it just sealed itself. _Poison_, thought Sora, _I need poison._

But unfortunately, he had none, so he kept up his efforts, eventually cutting off an arm, an ear and gouging out an eye. These did not heal, but the shinobi kept fighting, kept inflicting wounds, however minor, on Sora. _Maybe if I..._

Sora used his head for once and plunged his katars deep into the white, or red now, shinobi's shoulders for the hundredth time. But instead of pulling them out again, he forced every bit of chakra in his beaten up body into his enemy's. The body couldn't stand the sudden increase in power, and the shinobi screamed as blood poured freely from every previously inflicted opening. His heart had exploded, and his mouth spewed blood all over the snow (or ice now), and he collapsed, still twitching.

Sora felt like throwing up. He didn't know what the outcome of doing that would be, and it wasn't a pretty sight. But what was worse, he found as he turned slightly, was what he saw behind him before he fell unconcious. His last vision was of Kasei, and Koumei, and Haku, and then darkness.


	18. Chapter 18 Genma's Battle

_I wonder what she meant by 'They have fully developed Ookami bloodlines'... I think Kawa's clan name is Ookami, so are they related? It means wolf... so what's the connection?_ Genma chewed thoughtfully on his toothpick as he eyed his blue-clad opponent.

Raising his kasurigama, Genma dashed forwards causing the long chains to jingle loudly. His opponent held up his double-bladed pole and braced himself, unmoving. _I may not have any bloodlines,_ thought Genma as he released one of the curved blades towards his opponent, _but I know almost every single jutsu in Konaha. And that's got to account for something._

The curved blade wrapped tightly around the main section of the metal pole, and Genma pulled back hard, trying to force the weapon away from the other ninja. The blue shinobi pulled at the exact same time, and they were locked in a tug-o-war for a few moments. But Genma quickly drew a kunai and sent it at the red-eyed ninja, causing him to dodge it and forcing his weapon to straighten out. It allowed Genma to pull his weapon away and send it at him again.

This time, the blade missed and stuck into the snow. He turned quickly, looking for his lost target behind him and above him with no success. He turned back to where his blade was still deeply imbedded into the frozen ground and found a large blade heading for his head.

Thinking quickly, he threw his other blade at his opponents foot, wrapping around his ankle and attatching him to the blade imbedded in the snow. The incoming blade stoppped about an inch from Genma's nose, as his opponent found himself on a chain leash. _Ugh, too close,_ he thought as he threw two more kunai. He ran around to the other side, picking up his other blade, and pulling. It's partner came off easily, obviously not tightly wrapped around the other shinobi's ankle. He jumped backwards, taking to the air and hovering while he thought about what to do next. His opponent did the same.

Genma made a string of one handed seals, and jumped back shouting ,"Suiton Suiryudan no Jutsu!" A large cyclone of water was sent at the blue shinobi, taking the form of a dragon and plunging head first into him. Genma strained forward to see his opponent as the droplets of water cleared, revealing him lying on his back, before he disappeared into a puff of smoke. _Damn, a water clone?_

He spotted the real ninja a few feet behind, and he spun around, slashing the ninja across his neck, before... _puff!_

"What the?" Genma went through two more clones, before there were no more to go through and he was left looking around, confused. He heard a low growl, and spun back around, coming face-to face with an odd looking blue shinobi. _Umm..._

"What's with the doggy ears?" asked Genma as he dodged a low blow. The question seemed to infuriate the blue shinobi and he ran forward on all fours, like an animal, towards him. The blue, dog-eared shinobi made a few quick seals and shouted: "Doton: Jouro Konoha Yaiba!"

The snow beneath the blue ninja was suddenly blown away, revealing the frozen dirt beneath, as they were fighting on the edge of the bridge and not on it, at the very edge of the mirrors. The ground cracked, thin spidery lines spreading out from the shinobi's position, and breaking into thousands of small, one-inch plates. They ros into the air and shot forward as Genma, thinking quickly again, made more seals and shouted "Mokudon Jinheki no Jutsu!"

Before the blades of earth could reach him, a thick wall of tree branches and vines shot up from the snow, entwining and forming an inpenetrable barrier. As Genma ran around it to face his opponent, he heard a loud drumming as the earth blades slammed into it and embedded themselves deep into the wood. He skidded to a halt before his opponent could react and swung his kasurigama, releasing it in mid-swing and letting it fly bola-style towards the crouching form of the blue shinobi.

But the shinobi's enhanced hearing picked up on the jingling sound of the chains and he jumped just in time, but it was a little bit too late. The flying weapon caught his right ankle as he used it to puch off into the air, and one of the blades imbedded itself in his heel.

Genma quickly formed more one-handed seals, shouting "Doton, Daibakufu no Jutsu!" The earth and snow around Genma shot forward, exploding towards the blue shinobi in a powereful wave of snow, mud and chakra. It was unavoidable. But before it impacted, the shinobi snarled and transformed into a light grey wolf. _A full transformation? Is this what she meant...?_ Genma raised an eyebrow as the jutsu hit the large grey wolf with incredible force, knocking it backwards and sendig it flying almost to the edge of the dome, where he lay still in a pool of crimson.

Genma folded his wings and stepped forward as the wolf turned back into a human. He noticed that in his hand, he held the abandoned kasurigama in his right hand too late. The blur shinobi sprung forward and wrapped the log chain around Genma's wings and arms, and finally his throat.

As Genma struggled, and thought at the same time Sora was thinking the same thing, _I need poison..._ Genma wracked his mind, trying to think of something he had forgotten before. He was slowly running out of breath as the chain tightened, and he couldn't even reach his bound arms up high enough to try to loosen it. _Where was it... I forgot.... It's somewhere here.... Oh, right._

Genma would have laughed had he been able to, as he remembered the obvious. _How could I have forgotten._

He opened his mouthe and spat his brown toothpick into his hand, before bringing the sharpened wood into his attacker's thigh, penetrating deep and leaving it in like a bee sting. There was a few seconds of strugling, before the chain loosened and Genma pushed away, gasping for breath.

His toothpick had been coated in a deadly poison which he had completely forgotten about, as he had never before used it in battle, but it had to enter the bloodstream to take effect, so Genma had kept the toothpick in his mouth for 'safekeeping.'

He looked down at the body of the blue shinobi, but his thoughts were broken as three stray needles embedded themselves into his left shoulder. They were from Koumei's fight, and as he grunted and turned his head slightly, he saw around a hundred other needles that had hit home.


	19. Chapter 19 Kasei's Battle

Kasei barely had to advance, as his opponent, dressed in firey red, charged unhesitantly towards him, raising his glowing red sword above his head in an all out attack. Kasei brought up the katana in his left hand, blocking the blow effortlessly. No, not effortlessly. There had been more power behind the attack than he had expected, and his arms strained under the weight of the red shinobi.

He raised his other sword, bringing it swiftly to the other's stomach, and managing to graze the skin as he jumped away. The two ninja set theier stance and circled, before clashing again, slashing and blocking blows. Kasei managed to land another small scratch to his opponent's side and as the other shinobi spun backwards, he skidded to a halt. Kasei crouched low, with one leg bent and the other fully extended behind him, as he brought up his swords, readying himself again.

The red swordsman stood his ground, blocking amazingly fast considering the size of hes sword, as Kasei pushed him back. What he failed to notice, though, was that the red shinobi was building up for a more powerful attack. As Kasei struck for the fifth or sixth time, instead of blocking, the red ninja also brought his sword down. It impacted his shoulder, and would have cut his left arm clean off had he not blocked just in time.

As Kasei prepared to disengage again, he suddenly felt pain erupt through every sinew and bone in his well-muscled body, originating from where the glowing red sword was still embedded about an inch into his shoulder. He gasped and quickly pulled out. _I can't fight with one arm, so..._ Kasei raised the katana in his right hand and sent it flying towards his opponent, and catching the swordsman in his arm, also wounding it.

Kasei didn't waste a second. Switching the katana in his left hand to his right, he charged back into the battle, crossing swords with the red shinobi once more, and sending red sparks into the snow-covered ground. He was holding up pretty well, also, until he lost his balance on the slippery ground. He fell backwards and landed hard on his back, watching in a momentary state of shock as the red ninja pounced towards him. But he regained his senses and brought up his legs into his attacker's stomach, knocking him back. He then quickly flipped back up by opening his wings.

Before his opponent could recover and retalliate, Kasei made a few one handed seals, shouting the words "Katon Ryuka no Jutsu!" Holding his hands to his mouth, and folding his sword down to make toom, he breathed slowly out and a huge stream of fire erupted before him, roaring towards the red shinobi. Through the roar, he heard the words "Katon Hosenka!"

As the balls of fire connected with Kasei's continuous stream of flame, they exploded with tremendous force, sending both users skidding back a few meters. _He uses fire type jutsus also. This makes things a bit more challenging._

He readied his katana again and charged, activating his Kitsune Bloodline and borrowing the foxes senses. His attack became silent as he sped up and his hearing and sense of smell enhanced, so that he could smell the burnt ground. Holding his sword forward, he charged headfirst towards the red shinobi, who was doing the same. He yelled out "Katon Hotaru no Mai!" and began a complicated zig-zag pattern, confusing his opponent as he appeared behind him. His katana plunged straight through the red ninja's left arm, also rendering it as useless as his.

He jumped backwards, as the two caught their breath. _Why do I even bother fighting like this? I'll just..._ He sent his other katana towards the red shinobi, missing but distacting him, and released the rest of the seal. He felt the new form burn through him and wash over him. His left arm melded back together as it was coated in plate-like scales, and he felt new muscles ripple across his chest and back as he fell on all fours.

When the red griffin that was Kasei looked up through his yellow eyes, he saw before him, not a red swordsman, but a black wolf. It snarled and tackled him, tumbling over and over and ending with Kasei on top as he bit down hard on one of the wolf's paws. He had never made a full transformation like this, and it felt foreign to him, but he could also feel the all consuming power that was resonating from him. His chakra felt different and he felt much more agile.

The black wolf scratched viciously at Kasei's underbelly and snapped at his face, forcing a release. The wolf was suprisingly fast as he cornered quickly and dashed towards him again. Kasei was forced to take to the air, and as the wolf skidded to slow himself below, Kasei plunged back down to earth. But the wolf was too fast, and moved away easily as he heard the wind whistle across Kasei's red-orange wings.

Kasei landed car-like in the half-melted snow. _This is useless. It's supposed to be a battle of fire and swords, not a battle between demons._ He released his form, and dashed towards his abandoned sword. The black wolf, getting the same idea, followed suit, changing back and grabbing his sword, which was strangely not glowing. But as soon as he lifted it from the ground, it resumed glowing bright red.

There was a small pause as the two caught their breath. Blood ran freely from various wounds, pooling at each of their feet and staining the snow red. Before he could prepare for another attack, a golden wolf, closely followed by a strange blue wolf, with wings, cut through their battle, chasing eachother almost playfully. Kasei used the moment'd distraction to form another jutsu.

Two voices called out their jutsus at the same time, Kasei shouting out "Katon Karyu Endan!" His opponennt yelled out "Katon Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

A giagantic dragon-shaped torrent of flame collided with an intense sphere of flames, and another explosion ensued, this time knockig both shinobi back and down. Kaei recovered quickly, but felt his Chakra low. _One more attack... is all I need to finish this..._

"Katon Umi Hino!" yelled Kasei. Every bit of immediate air surrounding the red swordsman erupted in flame, and his cry was cut off quickly when he fell to the ground, dead. Kasei sighed, all energy wasted, and his eyes turned to see the other battles.

The first thing he saw, though, was Koumei, still refusing to strike her brother as she dodged in and out of mirrors. She was covered in blood, and her mask had fallen off at some point. But what happened next sent fear into Kasei's heart, freezing it and stopping his pulse. Before he could think properly he was off, running as fast as he could...


	20. Chapter 20 Deja Vu

Koumei stared at her possesed brother, clenching her teeth hard and grinding them together. She felt the needles in her hand, pressing annoyingly against her skin as she clenched her fists. She wanted to attack, she knew she had to, but she just couldn't bring herself to harm her brother. _But he's not really Haku, he's just the result of a jutsu. If I don't kill him, he'll kill me without hesitation..._

Haku dashed towards her in silence as she dodged easily. He came around again, sending four senbon at her. Koumei vanished, dodging through one of her mirrors, and reappearing on the other side of the dome. Haku did the same, he was incredibly fast, and appeared a few feet of, sending more senbon towards her. But Koumei was also fast, and she jumped high, flying towards her brother and aiming to knock him out.

Haku vanished and Koumei backflapped hard to slow herself. Before she could turn around, she felt three senbon enter her back. She pulled them out quickly and once again dashed through a mirror to the other side of the dome. This time, however Haku remained, thinking of what to do. Koumei felt a familiar presence pacing in the back of her mind. **_Let me out._**

Koumei dodged as more senbon flew towards her, into a mirror and back out again a few feet off. _Hell no._ She felt the presence lash out violently against her concience. **_Just let me out._**

Koumei worked up her courage, and sent a few poorly aimed needles towards Haku, before vanishing again, not reappearing for a moment. _I said no! You'll slaughter everyone!_

When she reappeared finally, Haku was standing before her in an instant, and punched her hard in the stomach, causing her to double over. But before he could attack again, she lashed out with her wings, catching him in the chest and sending him backwards. Only pausing for a moment, Koumei sent three senbon towards him, and retreated into another mirror, buying time as she moved to the other side of the large dome.

_**I won't. I'll just kill the enemy, not your little friends. Release me**._ Koumei grunted in frustration at the direction her mental conversation was going. She didn't respond, but instead ran around the edge of the dome, looking for Haku. _Don't bother me now, I'm busy._ A shower of senbon came from nowhere, some sticking in her legs and wings as she brought them up protectively.

_This is going nowhere,_ she thought, sending a counter of senbon back in the general direction of the main attack, without success. **_Exactly. Just this once._**

_Absolutely not! I swear, you'd kill everyone here until there was no one left, or until they kill you._ Koumei pulled out the senbon from her legs and turned to using her hands as weapons. The silver nekotes were still on, and she prepared to attack.

Reappearing in another mirror, she came at Haku from behind. He spun around just in time to block the nekotes with his senbon, but ended up skidding backwards from the force. He suddenly jumped backwards, causing Koumei to lose her balance momentarily, and six senbon needles flew into her body, two in her neck and the rest in her upper body and shoulders. _Ouch,_ she thought as she scrambled into a mirror.

Koumei's head throbbed as the presence in the back of her mind fought for control. She clutched at her head as she stepped out of another mirror. **_Let me out and I promise you I will finish this quickly._ **She looked around for Haku, who was charging at her, so she retreated into the mirror again.

_If you don't shut up and stop destracting me, I'll end up dead, and that means you'll be dead too._ The presence seemed to loosen the intensity of it's fighting, but it still tried for control. Koumei looked out from her mirror at the others battles. Some of them weren't looking too good.

There was a golden wolf hanging from Kawa's throat, as she was in a fully transformed griffin form, and the snow beneath her was red. Sora was fighting a white wolf and his arms were bleeding. He raised his hands and...._I told you not to waste your time on that Sora,_ thought Koumei as she watched three elements clash with his body. Kasei was fighting fire with fire, and Genma looked exaughsted as he preformed jutsu after jutsu.

Koumei stepped out of her mirror and looked to where Haku had been moments before. Without warning, she was knocked forwards, and a foot was slammed into her back as she hit the ground. She rolled over as the foot struck her in the ribs, causing blood to run slowly down from her lips. She sucked it back and pushed herself up, but before she could run away again, Haku kicked her in the face, sending her mask flying off and her body flying back towards a mirror._ Please let it be one of my mirrors,_ she thought as she headed for it.

Unfortunately, instead of time slowing as she passed into her mirror, she hit it hard and slumped down into the snow. Haku stood a ways off and made a few quick one-handed seals, shouting in a hollow voice, "HiJutsu, Sensatsu Suisho!"

Koumei looked up, vaguely noting the red had left her eyes again, and saw many long, sharp ice shards heading her way. _Joy,_ she thought, too exaughsted to lift her wings in protection. But before the ice needles could reach her, a red and orange form blocked her view of Haku. The red and orange was stained dark red as it took the neeldes, leaving only a few to reach Koumei. It was Kasei. **_Hmmm...Deja vu_**, said the presence mockingly.

"Kasei!" she shouted, forgetting her lost energy and jumping up. She ran over to his limp form where it lay in the snow, full of slowly melting needles. Her mind blanked out. Her vision turned red once more. And her anger boiled up from inside of her in the form of chakra.

She felt the eyes of her comrades watching in horror as red chakra exploded from her body, over her arms and legs, and over her wings. She started laughing quietly, as more chakra crackled around her like electricity. The red energy suddenly exploded, shooting out in all directions in about a ten foot radius as she began transforming. As sleek black fur spread over her, the dome of mirrors returned to it's normal size, and it's normal blue colour, which signalled that Koumei was no longer here.

In her place stood the black griffin, one talon placed in front of Kasei's body and the other three behind, shielding him. The chakra snapped and crackled loudly as the demon screeched in pleasure. "Finally! I thought I'd never get out of that hellhole!"

Haku stood a few feet off, and quickly slipped into a mirror. The black griffin was there in an instant, actually shattering the mirror as it brought a chakra enforced talon across it. Haku appeared behind once more, expecting to send twenty senbon at the demon, but too late. In a flash of ebony feathers, the griffin had Haku in it's mouth, thrashing him about wildly and probably snapping his backbone.

The demon dropped Haku, done playing, and plunged a talon into his chest, causing him to cry out. But Haku was no longer Haku as he was replaced with another persons body, dead, and the remaining mirrors vanished. The griffin didn't seem to notice it had won, and continued shredding the body, before flopping lazily down beside it and... eating it!?

The two remaining ninja, Kawa and Genma, as Kasei dying and Sora was unconcious, watched in horror and disgust as the demon griffin wolfed down the insides of the unknown person. But before the two could throw up or faint, the demon pulled back, shaking its head, as Koumei broke through, regaining control.

She was drenced in blood, hers and Haku's, and shaking uncontrollably in the snow where she sat, staring horrified at what she had done. A ways off, clapping broke the momentary silence, as Uchiha Itachi emerged from where he had been watching. He was no longer wearing his black and red Akatsuki robe, but was instead in a completely black outfit, and had a long sword, a katana, held beside him.

"I like your style, Koumei, well done," he said mockingly as he approached. "But unfortunately, I cannot allow this, so I will have to-"

Before he finished his sentance, he brought his sword's sheath across her nose, breaking it and throwing her on her stomach. Moving with incredible speed, he then plunged a kunai right between her wing joints, rendering them useless, and then hitting her over the head with the sword's sheath again, knocking her out cold.

"Very sorry, Koumei, but your daddy wants to see you again." He strapped his sword across his back and lifted Koumei's limp form.

"I'm borrowing your sensei, so you'll need to train yourselves for awhile. Arigato!" he said sarcastically, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.


	21. Chapter 21 Aftermath

Kawa collapsed in shock, her mouth hanging slightly open as strands of dark purple hair fell into her eyes. He mind slowly registered what had just happened, and screamed at her to get up. _I'm the medical ninja. I need to move!_ But her body simply refused to respond. All around her the snow was covered in blood, and bodies lay all over. _Get up, get up, getupgetupgetupgetup_..._MOVE IT!_ She screamed inwardly, finally moving her legs and forcing herself to stand.

But that was as far as her body wanted to go. Genma snapped out of his shock considerably faster, and made his way over to her. "We have to see to Kasei and Sora. Listen Kawa." He shook her shoulders and her eyes focussed on him, the first seemingly alive thing she had seen in a while. She was shaking.

"Kawa, your a medical ninja. Kasei is badly hurt. You have to go to him. Okay?" Genma tried to phrase it simply, and Kawa finally broke out of her state of shock, nodding numbly and turning towards Kasei, who was unconcious. Or at least she hoped.

She began running as she saw the state of her friend more clearly. When she finally reached him, she choked back her tears and began tearing the bottom of her shirt into long strips. All of the needles had melted, but they had left behind hundreds of holes and deep cuts. He was rapidly loosing blood. Kawa rolled him onto his back and began loosely staunching the wounds on his neck, where he was loosing the most blood from. She then tightly wrapped all of the major injuries. His lips were turning blue from bloodloss. _I can't work like this. I need to get him to the Hokage or he'll die soon._

She checked over him once more to make sure he would last for the next while, before dashing off towards where Genma was bent over Sora. When she reached him, she found Sora also unconcious, but not badly hurt, except for his arm. But no, he wasn't unconcious, he was...

"He's asleep..." said Genma slowly. Kawa stood for a moment, before kicking Sora with her foot.

"SORAGETUPRIGHTNOW! WENEEDHELPCARRYINGKASEI! IF YOU DON'T HELP HE'S GONNA DIE! GET UP!!" she kicked him twice with the last words, and his eyes snapped open.

"I didn't do it!" were the first words out of his mouth as he looked around as if he were being chased. "Huh?"

"Sora! Get up now! I can't carry Kasei, and Genma can't carry him alone, so we need you to help!" Kawa dragged him upwards by his uninjured arm.

"Why me?" he asked sleepily, pushing himself up and looking around. "Where's Koumei and Kasei anyways?"

"I dunno where Koumei went either. That Itachi guy vanished with her," said Genma, shrugging.

"LOOK!" said Kawa, fed up, pointing towards where Kasei lay perfectly still.

It took a moment for the vision to register in Sora's mind, but when it did he was off, running, followed by both Kawa and Genma. He knelt beside Kasei, and Kawa did the same.

The purple-haired medical ninja held a shaking hand over Kasei's mouth feeling for any warmth, any breath. There was a faint, uneven, brush of air against the palm of her hand, and she moved to his wrist, feeling a weak pulse.

She gave the signal, and Sora gently lifted Kasei's legs, forgetting his injured arm, and Genma carefully lifted his chest. Kawa looked around, checking once more for anything at all, before thay started on the long, slow journey back. The snow was deep still, coming up past their knees, and made things go incredibly slow.

* * *

Genma stumbled again and readjusted his hold on Kasei, straightening up and proceeding again. There was a low hoot from above, and a small brown owl descended toward Kawa, who was leading the way. She pulled something out of her pocket and scribbled something on it with a dull pencil. The owl took it and flew off again.

"We can't go any further like this. Kasei's body can't take this. We'll wait here for help, I've sent a message to the Hokage-sama." Kawa moved into the tree cover, finding a dry-ish spot and clearing it off as Genma and Sora lay Kasei down for her to tend to. It had started snowing again.

"Oi, what happened? I passed out." said Sora as he bandaged his arm.

"You fell asleep," stated Kawa as she brought chakra to her hands and held them over Kasei's neck. Sora paused and rubbed the back of his head.

"Did you hear what the Akatsuki said? He said the her dad wanted to see her. What's that about? I thought the Akatsuki killed her entire village, including her father, the Tsukikage." Genma said, without his usual toothpick to bob along with his thoughts.

"You'd be suprised at how much Koumei hides from the rest of the world. She bottles everything up and lets it out by making up stories about her life. I did get her to tell me some things, though." Sora continued bandaging his arm.

"What do you mean?" asked Genma, raising an eyebrow.

"I beat her in one-on-one combat and forced her to tell me some of the truth about her, under the condition that I told no one. I could tell what parts were lies and what was the truth. For example, she told you that the Akatsuki destroyed her entire village, which is kind of true, but they did not kill her adoptive father. You see, her and her father were members of the Akatsuki, but when Koumei ran away to the Hidden leaf, the villagers wanted to follow her and not the Tsukikage. They ended up dying by the Akatsuki, so she wasn't lying entirely. But she lies alot."

"What!?" Kawa's hands slipped as she stopped examining Kasei. "She's an Akatsuki!? How come you never told me any of this?" Kawa stared at him angrily.

"I couldn't! I swore not to!"

"So what? You are a thief. A T-H-I-E-F. A thief and a spy and a liar. What would you care about keeping your word?"

"Hey! That's not fair! I can keep my word!"

"It may not be fair, but it's true. And you can't keep your word because you just told us." Kawa went back to fixing up Kasei.

Sora seemed about to start up another argument, but was stopped as he saw an Anbu appear behind Genma and Kawa. And another, and another, until there were two full Anbu squads before them. "Uhh... Hi?"

* * *

Kawa sat slumped over, asleep, at the edge of Kasei's hospital bed as Genma walked in. They had just finished being treated, and without overly serious injuries, were allowed to leave almost immediately. Except for Sora, who was asleep again in one of the hospital rooms with a broken arm, many broken fingers and minor internal bleeding.

Genma sat down on the other side of the bed, with a brand new toothpick in mouth, and sighed as he looked at the state of his friend. There were many different machines around him, with beeping screens and odd attatchments. Over his mouth was a breathing mask, and almost his entire body, or what was visible, was bandaged, except for his face. There were various tubes going into his arms, blood transfusions and other things, and he wore one of those uncomfortable-looking collars.

Genma and Kawa had been unable to see Kasei for around a day. He had been in critical condition, or at least more so than before, and the doctors and medical nins, the Hokage herself included, would not allow visitors. They had spent a few hours treating burns, then more time operating on God knows what, preventing further internal bleeding. And now that they were finished, Kasei didn't look so good.

Kawa opened her eyes and sat up, glancing at Genma, and then to Kasei, biting her lip and rubbing her eyes. She stretched and coughed a few times, looking over at one of the machines and understanding what it was saying, unlike Genma. She had been the first out of her hospital bed, after only two or so hours of rest, and due to her unusually fast healing abilities, had been able to draw in her injured wings, almost fully healed.

"I better go visit Sora or else he'll complain about not getting any attention. And I don't want him to come complaining to me..." she said sleepily, standing and walking out of the room, leaving Genma alone with the beeping machines. He lay back against the chair, closing his eyes for a moment.

_I wonder what happened to Koumei? What would an Akatsuki want with her?_ Genma stretched and stood, leaving to get some sleep. He looked back once at Kasei before closing the door lightly behind him.


	22. Chapter 22 Orochimaru it rhymes lol

Poke.

_Ouch..._

Poke.

_That hurts._

Poke. Poke. POKE.

_STOP IT!_

Her body was completely numb, and yet in pain at the same time. Koumei opened an eye warily, not wanting to know what she would see. She was mildly suprised that her vision was not stained red as she looked around. She was in her bed inside of her old bedroom.

Poke.

She turned her head and saw a young, white-haired boy with glasses doing something to her arm. He said nothing, even after noticing his patient was concious. _Poke. Poke. Poke._ He finished with a stange pull on the skin of her arm and moved away to her desk. Looking at her arm, she noticed a long row of many small, neat stitches running right over her curse mark. She pulled her arm back and noticed her wings were still out. As she rustled them, preparing to draw them in, she stopped and her blood froze.

There were no soft golden-browns. No feathers. No. Instead she saw black scales. Crimson, dark leathery skin. And to top it off, each wing-joint was tipped with two sharp black talons. _What...the...Hell!?_

"Do you like them? They are a gift from Orochimaru-sama." She turned as the white-haired boy adressed her, glasses flashing in the low light as he smiled sickly.

"Who the Hell are you!?" she said when she found her voice.

"Kabuto. Orochimaru-sama told me to give you proper wings. I thought this colour suited you perfectly. It matched your oufit at least." He held up her bloodstained red and black outfit, dangling it in front of her. She looked down and noticed she was dressed in a completely black outfit. She didn't want to ask any questions. But she did.

"Orochimaru? What's that serpent got to do with me? I thought the Akatsuki got me, not the Sound-nin." _Please don't tell me that....._

"Orochimaru-sama has made a deal with the Akatsuki. He is once again with them,leading them, if only momentarily. Along with another group of missing-nin called the Kirigenshi." The white-haired boy, Kabuto, turned slightly and scribbled something on a clipboard.

_This is just great. Now I have to deal with the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and another group. But..._

"Why has Orochimaru suddenly decided to do this? What's he planning now?" Koumei voiced her thoughts, still unsure whether or not she wanted answers.

"Why so many questions? This is not an interview, Toji," he said, using her givin name. She looked up, impressed that he knew the name the scientists had givin her at birth.

"But I suppose I could answer that... I'm suprised you haven't guessed, after the fall of the Rain and the overpowering of the Grass, it's obvious. Orochimaru-sama is trying to eliminate all threats and leave him to rule as he pleases," said Kabuto, not noticing her silence.

"...How did you know my name?"

There was a short pause, before Kabuto let out a short laugh. "Don't you remember? We found the accounts and document scrolls from the experiment. It told us _everything_ about you. You mean you really forgot!?" he began laughing quietly again, turning back to the desk and writing something else down.

"I must report to Orochimaru-sama. He wished to know when you were awake. Don't move," he said mockingly, leaving and shutting her bedroom door softly behind him. She found out why there had been laughter in his voice as he said the last words. Her ankles were chained to her bed. She grunted in frustration, and sat up, surveying her old bedroom.

It was exactly as she had left it, except that now the bars on the windows and on the door had been removed. It had been used as more of a _prison_ than a room. On the walls hung various weapons, swords, blades, knives, and a few specially designed outfits on display for her eyes. On the opposite wall was a large cabinet which she knew was full of potions, bombs, pills, medicines and poisons, along with her hunter-nin equipment.

On the wall to he left was a glass cabinet full of carefully organized items- jewelery, scrolls, her moon headband- sitting on the shelves, some of them gifts used as payment or things she had stolen from enemies. It was her personal collection of whatever. On the very top shelf of the glass cabinet, each one hanging on it's appropriate hook, were the headbands of some of her most talented enemies. Mist, Grass, Waterfall, Sand, Rain, at least one from every village, even one from Konoha, although she had not killed the man, she had collected it from his body.

The door suddenly cracked open a bit, before opening fully. Koumei, or Toji, swallowed hard, fearing what was going to follow. In stepped Orochimaru himself, closely followed by Kabuto and then by a red-haired girl, around Koumei's age, perhaps a bit younger, dressed in Sound-nin robes.

"Welcome home, Toji," said Orochimaru, stopping at the foot of her bed and grinning.

"What do you want, snake," hissed Koumei, staring fearlessly into his odd, slitted eyes.

"I came to introduce you to Kaitahi. She will be your shadow from now on, and will follow you everywhere." He turned, ready to leave, before adding, "and tomorrow, you can meet _everybody else_." Kabuto followed him out of the room, leaving Koumei and Kaitahi alone.

Koumei glared at Kaitahi, who glared back, before she flopped back down and rolling over to face the dull whitish walls and going to sleep.

* * *

The next day, Koumei awoke with the moonlight filtering in on her eyes. In the Hidden Moon, there were many concealing jutsus used to protect it, and one of those was used to make it appear to be night at all times of the day. In reality, it was probably around ten o clock in the morning.

She sat up and noticed Kaitahi was already awake and fiddling with the weapons on the far wall.

"Hey! Don't touch those," said Koumei, making to stand but remembering the chaains around her ankles. "And get these chains off."

"Why the Hell should I listen to you!?' said Kaitahi, spinning around and glaring at her. But she came over anyways and pulled a key from her robes, undoing the shackles and allowing Koumei to get up.

"Orochimaru-sama wants to see you in the Tsukikage's chamber. I'd hurry up if I were you, I don't want to get _my_ ass kicked by him."

Koumei grunted in response, warily rubbing her ankles before standing. Her new wings were still outside of her body, and she held one forward feeling the textures of the leathery skin. She didn't like it at all. Frowning she walked casually over to the wall, preparing to take a katana down from it._ Looks like I'll be fighting my way out again_.

"Uhh... I wouldn't want to be doing that if I were you..." said Kaitahi, examining her hands casually, turning them over and over.

"No, I really think I do," said Koumei as she lifted a long sword from the wall.

"No, you don't. Think about it, you versus all the sound-nin, a few Grass-nin, all of the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and the Kirigenshi. You don't stand a chance. Honestly."

Koumei paused momentarily. "You're probably right. But I'm still taking weapons." She tied the sword across her back, along with her old weapons pouch. As an afterthought, she opened the glass cabinet and removed her Moon-nin headband. There was a slash across it, cutting the crescent in half, but it was still a head protector. She tied it bandana-style over her head, letting her loose dark brown hair fall messily over her face and shoulders.

She stretched her new wings to their full length and examined them. They were very narrow, almost elegant, and the dark red leathery skin stretched elastically when she extended them. At the joints in the middle of them, there were two claws on each wing which glinted softly in the moonlight. Muscles rippled across the limbs, and she flexed them slightly before folding her wings in disgust.

Koumei left the room quickly, and headed out down the hall and down some stairs, all the while followed by the red-haired sound nin. When she reached her adoptive father's chambers, she heard no voices at all, but through the door she could see the boy, Kabuto, sitting beside Orochimaru. She opened the door without knocking, and peeked in nervously. She didn't feel very comfortable entering a room full of S-ranked criminals.

"Toji. Sit," Kabuto pointed to a chair beside Orochimaru and she stepped in warily, moving over to the chair, and then moving the chair away from Orochimaru before sitting down.

"Orochimaru-sama is going to introduce you to the members of the Kirigenshi, along with a few of his specially trained Sound-nin. It would do you well to pay attention and remember them for the future," said Kabuto, glasses glinting annoyingly in the low light.

"These will be the ones hunting you, Toji. So remember their strengths and weaknesses. This," Orochimaru gestured towards Kaitahi, " is Kaitahi, whom you will know very well by the end of the week. She is the older sister of one of the Sound Five, Tayuya, and also uses a flute to summon and control monsters."

Orochimaru continued through the list of about twelve Kirigenshi, and two more Sound-nin. The Kirigenshi all wore drab grey clothes, but each wore a red head protector somewhere on them, which stood out against the drab colours. She didn't really pay much attention, but was lost in thought. _What does he mean by the ones hunting you? This isn't some kind of game. I need to get back to Konoha. Thats right! I wonder what happened to Kasei? I never saw, that Itachi guy bashed in my face and broke my nose again. I was wondering why there was an annoying bandage across my nose... Sora was unconcious too. But Kasei jumped in front of the needles... I wonder why?_

Koumei's thought wandered for awhile, until Orochimaru finished his little meeting and went onto explaining something else. She snapped back to reality.

"You will stay here for a month and a half, as we need to take notes on the effects of our experiments. That's the first part. The second part will consist of sending out the people mentioned out after you to see if they can overpower you in your new state. Hope you enjoy the experience," he said sarcastically, standing and leaving followed by Kabuto and the rest of the ninja. One man, however, stopped and looked over to her for a moment. It was the Tsukikage.

Koumei glared at him as he left, smiling. She was utterly confused at the moment. _I have to warn the other Hidden Villages about this... but how am I supposed to get out of this place? I don't get it... What experiment was he talking about? What exactly did he do to my body? ARGH!_ She stood and stormed back to her room. _I'm going back to bed._


	23. Chapter 23 Visitor

_Why the Hell are they being so nice to me!? I am a p-r-i-s-o-n-e-r._ Koumei looked over to the man who had just brought her a platter of sushi. It had been three days, and the Missing-nins were treating her as if she were royalty, unless she tried to run away. Which she had. Twice. And both times they had ganged up on her and she knew they could overpower her, so she just gave up and went off training every day.

She still had no clue how to use her wings, they were so long and akward. All she could manage were short glides from rooftop to rooftop, but if she flapped even once, she simply flipped backwards and fell. It was incredibly frustrating. She finished eating the sushi quickly, before leaving to go train off the day, still followed by Kaitahi. The Hidden Moon was one of the few Hidden Villages that was actually Hidden. There had been forbidden jutsus protecting it since it's creation, including everlasting night, and another one that only allowed entrance into the village on moonlit nights, making it easier to patrol.

All of the houses and buildings were basically normal-looking, except for the fact that they had never seen the light of day and appeared bleached. Koumei walked the rooftops slowly, gliding now and then, trying to get a feel for her wings and making it difficult for Kaitahi to follow at the same time. _I need to train harder and get out of here. There is no way they can keep me here for a month and a half_, she thought as she headed towards one of the smaller, more secluded training fields.

Before she could begin, however, she heard a hoarse croak from above, followed by black wings. It was Kuro. _'Took you long enough to find me,' _she thought as he landed on her outstretched hands,

_'Uhh... What happened to you?' _asked Kuro, hopping onto her shoulder and examining her wings.

Kaitahi watched in confusion as they had a mental conversation. Koumei sat down and nodded to Kuro, whispering something and slumping over

Suddenly, Koumei was flying again. It had been awhile since she had been able to feel the thrill, even if she could not feel the wind on her face. Kuro passed quickly out of the Hidden Village, emerging over a large lake and heading west. There was no snow here, and the sun was shining brightly. It was a five hour flight almost to get to Konoha, but she could use Kuro to warn them about Orochimaru. And she also wanted to see if Kasei was all right. Sora too, she thought a moment later. _Fly fast, Kuro._

What should have felt like five hours, though, felt only one hour as she saw the snow-covered walls surrounding Konoha. _Give me control, Kuro._ She suddenly felt pain errupt through her body as she took full control over the raven. But it was gone in a matter of seconds, and she could now feel the soft breeze on her face and under her wings.

She flew over to Kasei's house, and then to Genma's, finding nothing. As she passed over the rest of town, she began wondering if they had even made it back. _Hospital, stupid_, came Kuro's voice through her mind. She turned towards the large, square building and began going from window to window.

The first Wing-nin she found was Sora, asleep with his arm in a cast, but no horrible machines beeping around him. Koumei sighed in relief and continued on. But when she reached the second floor, she was not prepared. She found Genma and Kawa in the room sitting on either side of a bed with a great number of machines around it. In the bed was a heavily bandaged form. It was Kasei, she finally noticed.

Hovering for a moment, she landed on the closed window sill, scratching wildly ar the glass for attention. Kawa looked up first and spotted her, or Kuro, and stood quickly, opening the window.

"Kuro! Where's Koumei!? What's happened!?" she said as Koumei in Kuro's form hopped onto her shoulder, surveying Kasei before hopping onto his bedcovers, moving over to his head and looking past the breathing mask. His face was slightly quivering, perhaps from pain, and his lips were parted very slightly. His head was bandaged, causing stands of light-brown hair to fall messily over his eyes. _What happened to you, Kasei?_

Koumei knew she needed to relay a message to one of the Wing-nin in order to get it to the Hokage and the other villages. But she did not have enough chakra left to force a voice, so she looked around for one of the bird summons. She spotted Kawa's owl perched on the tree outside, asleep, and flew back through the window.

_"Mukoshi. Wake up." _she buffetted the small brown owl with a black wing, and it was alert instantly.

_"Kuro. Where have you been? The others were worried," _said the owl silently, swivelling it's head around to look over the raven.

_"It's Koumei, speaking through Kuro. I need you to get a message to Kawa and the others. I'ts important, and I can't stay for long, so listen well." _Kuro moved around to the other side of the branch, folding his wings tightly across his downy back.

_"There is something dangerous going on. Orochimaru has rejoined the Akatsuki, along with another group of missing-nin called the Kirigenshi. They are planning to start a war and destroy all of the Hidden Villages, Konoha included. You have to get this to the Hokage, and get her to warn the other villages. Orochimaru has around a thousand ninja, and about fifty of them are S-ranked missing-nin."_

Kuro paused for a moment, croaking quietly. _"Tell them not to worry about me. I'll get out of here sooner or later. And tell kawa and Sora to continue on with training Genma and Kasei." _Koumei paused again, stopping her train of thoughts, before adding _"Is Kasei alright? He's going to live, right? I don't really remember what happened."_

_"I couldn't see inside the dome, but when it vanished he was on the ground with needles in him,"_ said Mukoshi through her mind.

_"Needles? Whose?" _Koumei strived to remember the battle. But she could only remember Itachi and Kasei.

_"You don't remember anything? Haku's ice needles," _said the owl, cocking it's round head slightly to the side. Haku?

_"He... he was my brother." _thought Koumei slowly_. "No.... Orochimaru wouldn't. He must have erased my memories... I was wondering why there was no red. I remember there was always red. Was this part of the experiment?" _Kuro closed his eyes for a moment as Koumei felt a tug from her real position, back at the Hidden Moon.

_"I'll kill him. I swear. He shouldn't tamper with peoples minds, or bodies. I can't even fly anymore. I have to go, but I'll see if I can get out. Please tell Kawa," _thought Koumei as she slipped back into the Moon Village, jerkeng back into conciousness. Although there was no snow, it was still winter and it was cold out. Luckily though, her new outfit had long sleeves and long pants, but her hands were still frozen.

"What the Hell was that about? I was getting bored after you passed out for around _**five or six hours**_," said Kaitahi standing up about three feet off and emphasizing the last words.

"I'll kill Orochimaru." said Koumei simply, standing and moving away. It was around five o clock in the sfternoon. _I might as well use all of my 'spare time' learning how to control these wings. Then I can get out of this Village and finish training the other Wing-nin so I can kill Orochimaru without fear of dying myself._

"Hah. Day three: becomes bent on killing Orochimaru-sama." said Kaitahi mockingly. In a flash, a katana was held at the Sound-nins throat, but she was able to bring up a long, silver flute, blocking the blow and still smiling.

"Whatcha gonna do now? Kill me too? Hah!" Kaitahi began laughing as Koumei pulled back the sword, noticing that there were still the ranks of ninja hiding in the surrounding trees. She sheathed the sword and turned away, preparing for vigorous training. She was going to learn to fly.


	24. Chapter 24 One Month

Konoha was well prepared. They had warned their allies of the apperent threat, and had assembled their own forces, ready for an attack at any time. The snow was beginning to melt, and the days were growing warmer as Spring approached. It had been two weeks since Koumei had been taken, and Kasei had just woken up a little while ago.

Right now, he was asleep again after another recent operation, but was recovering incredibly fast due to attention from Kawa and the Hokage herself. The internal bleeding had stopped completely, and all of his minor fractures had healed. The only thing left was for him to regain energy and lost chakra.

Kawa was watching him warily, staring into space and letting her mind wander. Kasei suddenly twitched and opened his eyes again. He groaned.

"So... hungry," he complained quietly. He sat up rubbing his eyes. "I need some real food, not this stupid hospital stuff. When can I get out of here, anyways?"

Kawa looked up, "I already told you, whenever you can walk, you're free to go. Even Sora got tired of the food and left. And Genma said he didn't like hospitals, so he went off to go sleep at his house."

Kasei turned and let his legs dangle over the edge of the bed, testing his legs before standing. He rubbed his eyes again, before stumbling over to one of the chairs and sitting down.

"Hey. Where are my other clothes? These hospital clothes are.... well, they're hospital clothes," he said, brushing light brown hair from his face.

"Why don't you just cut your hair? It just gets in the way..." Kawa sighed and stood. "I'll go get your clothes, if you really want food that badly."

A moment after she left, Kasei heard voices outside, and before he could hide under the covers again, none other that Anko burst in with a large smile on her face. He groaned, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Kasei! You're finally up!" she almost bounced into the room, and to Kasei's suprise, dragged a somewhat exaughsted looking Sora with her. Anko took the other chair and left Sora to stand off to the side.

"So... When ya gonna go _rescue_ Koumei? Huh?" asked Anko, leaning forward. Sora took a sudden intrest in the conversation.

"What do you mean?" asked Kasei, looking confused.

"Awww... come on. Why else would you jump in front of a thousand needles to save her?" said Anko, winking.

Kasei stumbled. "Wh-what?"

"Geez. Admit it already. You'd make a cute couple anyways," said Sora, leaning against the wall.

Kasei cast around for something to respond to that with, when he was saved as the door opened and Kawa came in with a neat pile of folded clothing.

"I'm getting changed now, so you can leave," said Kasei lifting the pile. Anko grinned and left, dragging Sora behind her, and Kawa followed. _Why can't they just leave me alone for awhile._

* * *

Koumei flapped harder, pushing her body to the limit for the umpteenth time this morning. Kuro had informed her of her comrades comdition, and she was just about ready to get out of the Moon Village. The moon shone brightly above her as she managed to get three feet off the ground, hovering for a moment before collapsing. Mastering flight with her normal wings had been much easier.

There were four weeks left until Orochimaru's hunt would begin, but Koumei planned to be leaving as soon as possible. Orochimaru himself had informed her that even if she did manage to break through the missing-nin and escape, he would not pursue her far because the experiment required a month and a half before he would be able to continue with the second part.

She had still not managed to draw in her wings though, they had different properties than her other ones and she couldn't control them yet. _Soon_, she thought, _soon I will get out of this Hellhole..._

Picking herself up off the ground, she readied herself for another day of training. She was slowly getting better.

* * *

Kasei sat at the Ramen bar with Genma, a pile of empty bowls beside him. They were not the only ninja's present, however. The entire town buzzed with activity, under 24-hour survaillence by chuunin, jounin, Anbu, and even some of the Gennin. Kawa and Sora had even agreed to help, since their 'sensei' had not yet returned, if she ever would, and their own Villages were stronger than Konoha.

The villagers were tense also. There were less people on the streets, and those that were kept to the edges, and watched their surrounsings closely. Another week had gone by with no news from Koumei. Not even Kuro had come to Konoha. _I hope nothing's happened to her..._

Kasei finished his sixth bowl of ramen and stood. The snow had completely melted away now, and Spring was only two weeks away. It had been a month since Koumei had been taken, and Sora and Anko had been pressuring him to go after her. But he had no clue where she was. When she came as Kuro, or when she sent Kuro to deliver news, she had always avoided giving any information on her state or her location. And now that they hadn't heard from her for a while, Kasei and the others were beginning to worry.

* * *

Koumei slumped into her uncomfortable bed. Tonight. Tonight she was going to run for it. She had a complicated and dangerous plan, but she would go through with it. Kaitahi had no clue, even though she had followed her everywhere. She had also finally managed to draw in her wings, although she had not yet mastered flight, but there was a small problem. She could not release the seal.

She would try, and she would feel blood dripping slowly down her back, but it felt wrong. There was barely any pain, and no matter how much chakra she put out, the seal refused to break. But she had found a way to escape without them.

She sat up after awhile and moved over to the wall of weapons, selecting a intricately designed katana from the wall. She attached her nekotes on each hand, and grabbed her Akatsuki robe. It was different from the normal ones though, in that it was lighter and the designs were grey instead of red. Draping it over her shoulders and adjusting her headband, she turned to leave.

"Again? This is the hundredth time, Toji," said Kaitahi casually.

"It was a stupid thing to underestimate me," said Koumei, slamming the door open. Kaitahi sensed something different about her instantly, and froze. There were no ninja in this building, they only followed her around outside, making Kaitahi the only one. She dashed after her.

Kaitahi found Koumei in a dark room where there was no moonlight filtering in. Over her shoulder she carried a sack full of God knows what, but Kaitahi guessed what it's contents were. They were the experiment files. All of the scrolls with her information on them. She was serious this time.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!? You don't stand a chance against a thousand ninja!"

"I'm not going to be the one fighting," she said simply. Then, with incredible speed, she dashed out the door and through a window, into the night. Before Kaitahi could follow, she heard a yell. And another one. It had begun.


	25. Chapter 25 Escape

"Thats the last jutsu. Thats all we know, and all Koumei taught us," Sora explained lazily. Kawa was eating lunch in the soft spring sunshine as Kasei, now almost fully recovered, and Genma practiced Yabane no Jutsu, the feather arrows technique. Kawa insisted on doing as Koumei had told her to do, and finished the two leaf-nin's training. They were all on the same level now.

"Take a break and eat some lunch, the food's going cold, Sora," said Kawa, still eating.

"It's not like you helped with the training!" he retorted, shuffling over to the patch of sunlight and plopping down bedide her, laying back in the grass with a sandwich. He was soon joined by Genma and Kasei.

"So, when is this war gonna start? I'm getting bored," said Sora through a mouthful of sandwich.

"Dunno," replied Genma, grabbing a sandwich for himself.

"I wonder what we're supposed to do. Sora and I are from different villages, and if they are involved we will have to fight for them. Although our contract says we are to do as Koumei says until she gives us permission to leave, I think out Kage's will overrule that in case of a battle..." Kawa finished off her sandwich, sighing.

"This whole thing is getting way too confusing for me," she said, looking up at the sun. _I don't know what we'll do if the Sound and the Akatsuki attack... we might not be able to force them back if they do. We need Koumei..._

* * *

Koumei tore through the village, across the rooftops at a breakneck speed. There were ranks of ninja chasing her in the moonlight, and she stopped every once and a while to cast a jutsu and slow them, If she could just get past the border to Konoha, then she would be homefree. But the border to the fire country was miles away, and even if she managed to avoid injury, it would take her two days at least to reach it.

A large spike shot up from the ground to her left and she dodged it just as another five shot up in front of her. She jumped easily over them, but she was worried. They were not aiming to kill, they were trying to tire her out. She could see the shimmering barrier that surrounded the village and she prepared her chakra.

Before she could reach it, however, a group of Sound-nin appeared in front of her, and as she skidded to a halt, the ninja behind her formed a circle. _Dammit. No choice, I've got to..._

She quickly bit her thumb and plunged her hand into the rooftop, forcing as much chakra into it as her body would allow. Electric whips of chakra crackled in a wide circle around her momentarily, before a large white form shot out of the ground in a puff of light grey smoke. The summoned griffin was gigantic, its wings easily stretching over sixty feet, and although it landed lightly on the shingled rooftops, they almost gave way, sending clay plates flying into the air.

"Kamikaze-sama! Please buy me time to escape!" yelled Koumei, kneeling and lowering her head in submission. The giant white griffin, acknowledged her with a nod and a small bow, before turning and plunging into the ninja ranks. Koumei went for the nearest opening, running full-force into what appeared to be a solid wall.

But as she neared it, it shimmered and disolved as she pushed chakra to her feet and leapt into the early morning. She closed her eyes at the sudden light change, because althought the sun had not fully risen, it was still much brighter than the inside of the village.

She landed lightly on the surface of a lake, sinking an inch before rising again. The noise from the inside of the Hidden Moon was nonexistent, and only the singing of early birds reached her ears. Mist hung thinly over the lake, as she ran to the edge.

The Hidden Moon was just that, hidden. If you looked at it at any other time than in the moonlight, all you could see was a small rock in the middle of a lake. The lake was surrounded by forests, and then dropped off in cliffs on all sides before rising again, creating deep ravines. Koumei paused to look behind her for a moment, until the air in the middle of the lake shimmered and the white griffin, Kamikaze, the lord of all the other griffins, burst from the Hidden Moon, carrying the Tsukikage himself in his beak.

But he was followed by the rest of the ninja, around three-hundred by now, and the white griffin took one more swipe at them, killing a few, before flying up and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Koumei ran.

_He thought I had already left... dammit, they've seen me._ Koumei tore through the forest, branches whipping across her face along with her loose hair. She quickly took to the trees, jumping from branch to branch quickly, but the sounds of pursuit did not grow quieter. As she chanced a look behind her, she lost her balance and almost fell off of a branch. Luckily she managed to snag it with one hand, while keeping her other hand around the sac of scrolls. She managed a curse under her breath before the ninja were upon her.

Someone yelled something as she tried to run, and a shrill note peirced the morning air. Before Koumei could push forward more, four large black dragon-like monsters appeared in front of her, one on each branch. _Shit,_ she thought, glancing behind her and spotting Kaitahi bringing up her flute. She threw a kunai, managing to hit the red-haired Sound-nin's flute and one of the four dragons disappeared. But the kunoichi recovered her concentration quickly and began to play.

_I've got no time for this... _"Umou no Eimen!" _Bird, snake, tiger, tiger, dog, horse, rabbit, bird, bird..._

Koumei jumped forward, right over the dragon demons' heads as feathers began to fall fom everywhere. One of them landed on a demon, and burned deep into it's body as it shrieked in pain. The three demons thrashed about as Koumei quickly escaped towards the ravines surrounding the forest.

As she broke through the tree cover and skidded to a halt, she realized she was trapped. She needed wings to get across, and she could neither release her new wings, and she could barely use them. The shrieks behind her stopped and the sounds of her persuers neared. _No way in Hell am I giving up now._ She tore off her Akatsuki robe and gripped along with the sac as she turned and ran.

She clutched her bag of scrolls and jumped, holding her arms out and squeezing her eyes shut as her stomach sank with the freefall. _Release! Release Goddammit!!! _She forced chakra over her seal, feeling it give way a little. _Hurry up! _Opening her eyes, she noticed the stoney ground fast approaching. _I'm not going to die here! RELEASE!!!_

Two black and red leathery wings shot out from between her shoulder blades, and although it did not hurt very much, blood still flew in front of her. She flapped down hard over and over, forcing her body upwards with incredible difficulty. Her wing muscles began to stiffin in exaughst as she reached the halfway point and she faltered, falling a few feet before getting back on track. Cold dark blood dripped slowly from her shoulders as her breathing sped up and her forehead beaded with sweat under her Moon-nin bandana.

She reached the top with a final downstroke, and caught the ledge of the ravine with her right hand, dangling for a moment before pulling herself up. She sat hunched over, gasping for a moment, before drawing her wings in again. Unlike her normal ones which could sustain themselves without chakra, these required a constant flow and it drained her to use them at all.

Koumei looked back across the ravine and saw no one. They were wasting no time in finding a way across. She sighed and stood, closing her eyes for a moment before running again.

It didn't take long for her to slow down though, she was just too sleepy. She sat down for a moment in a patch of shade. The sun was now fully up, and the forest cast shades of green over the ground and cast shadows from the budding branches.

"How can there be so many birds around, singing so happily at a time like this?" she whispered to herself. There was a croak from above, and Kuro floated down from the sky, landing on a nearby branch.

"They're that close, huh?" she asked, looking back into the dense forest. She thought about her choices for a moment, before re-opening her thumb and summoning another griffin. This time, it was a medium sized, flame coloured griffin named Akaihane. _She looks just like Kasei's form..._

Koumei bowed slightly. "Akaihane-sama, I have a favour to ask of you," she said lifting her head.

Akaihane looked her over, before bowing slightly, "very well, what is it?"

"If you will... can you please fly me to the border of the fire country?"

The flaming griffin nodded and kneeled down as Koumei hopped lightly onto her back, gently grabbing handfuls of red feather and fur. The griffin crouched lower, before springing into the air with amazing speed.

Akaihane glided in a slow circle once, before dashing the their left, becoming a blur of reds and oranges. Koumei huddled low, burying her face into the soft feathers on the griffin's neck. They would arrive in less than an hour at this speed, leaving the Missing-nin far behind.

* * *

Koumei watched as the red griffin disappeared in a puff of smoke. She hadn't expected escaping to be so incredibly easy. Orochimaru could have stopped her had he really wanted to. She sighed, looking ahead. Konoha wa a half-hours walk.

There was a soft breeze, and as Koumei walked towards the village lost in thought, her hair blew across her face. She realized she was still clutching her Akatsuki robe in her hand along with the bag, and she draped over her shoulders, not bothering to put her arms through properly. Her katana rubbed annoyingly against her body, and she shifted it before continuing on.

Kuro landed silently on her shoulder as she slowly moved towards the village, still lost in thought. She arrived at one of the training fields, looking around for the other Wing-nin, but finding none. She was about to continue on, when she heard laughing a little ways off, and moving away from her.

She slowly walked towards it, gaining slowly and brushing some of her dark brown hair out of her face. She stopped when she saw her camrades, happily walking away from her. Kawa was laughing at something Sora had said and Genma was talking to her. Koumei's shoulders sank when she saw Kasei, walking slowly behind them with his head hung low, looking at his feet. Kawa turned and asked him something, and he looked up, smiling and nodding before dropping his head again.

But before Kawa turned back, she spotted Koumei standing alone with the breeze blowing her hair messily across her sad face. The moon head protector which she wore bandana style over her head glinted in the sunlight, a deep slash running through the middle.

Kawa stopped and turned fully, her smile fading as the others continued on. "Koumei?"

The other three Wing-nin turned at the mention of her name, shocked to see the Akatsuki standing only a few meters away. There was silence. Kuro cawed and flew off her shoulder, into the sky and disappearing.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get out faster," said Koumei quietly, dropping her eyes.

"What happened? Why are you wearing Akatsuki robes? Are you still with them?" asked Kasei, taking a step forward.

"No! I was never really with them! Please don't think that," she said, turning slightly. Kawa stepped forward and stopped again, unsure of whether to proceed or not. "Tell us the truth about you. You can't gain people's trust by lying to them."

"I..." Koumei turned away, her back to them. "Fine. But Orochimaru... I'll probably remember if I tell you... But there will not be much feeling behind it. He stole that from me." Koumei coughed lightly and brushed more dark strands from her face, before telling them the truth.


	26. Chapter 26 The Truth

"First of all, my real name is not Tsuki Koumei, but Tsuki Toji, meaning useless. The scientists that brought me into this world named me that at birth. But I'd prefer Koumei. At birth, I was a stillborn. I was not meant to live in this world, but people have sick minds. They used my body as an experiment for forbidden jutsus, eventually bringing me back into the world and leaving me with my parents to grow up in the Hidden Mist.

"When I turned three, my brother Haku was born. But at that age, I was also taken by Orochimaru. I was not a stupid child, and I knew that my parents were afraid of me, that they didn't really love me. So I always looked to my brother, since he never had any opinion byt to laugh and smile. I didn't really care. I left with Orochimaru, to go train away from home, leaving my family.

"He trained me in secret here in Konoha, leaving me to fend for myself at nights in the woods, unless I was well-behaved and he took me in for the night. I trained with Anko and we learned some of the same jutsus, but Orochimaru made me focus on the Wing-style. Orochimaru was horrible to me, he would never feed me or take care of me, except when I was really little and couldn't do that for myself.

"At five, I was at the Gennin level and had usage of my wings and I had Kuro. By seven, I was at a chuunin level, and by ten I was at the level of an Anbu captain. For some reason, perhaps from depression or lonliness, I had tried to kill myself every day, and only Anko, who was assigned to take care of me, could talk me out of it. I soon stopped caring about everything, my body and my heart simply went numb and became oblivious to all around it. I finally realized that I was just a tool, for the Hidden Mist, for Orochimaru, for anyone who happened to pick me up.

"When I turned thirteen, after mastering the Wing-style, Orochimaru thought me too dangerous and sealed the demon griffin inside of me to control me. Breaking the seal is very painful, and had I not experienced such pain throughout my life, it would have knocked me out every time he used it on me. But that was the last straw. I was not going to be controlled like that, existing alone was enough to worry about.

"I waited until after Orochimaru had finished a fight with some guy, and his chakra and energy were slightly lower, and then I confronted him. He had said that the only way to escape was to beat him in one-on-one combat, so that's exactly what I did.

"Orochimaru made the mistake of releasing the demon inside of me, and for that he paid dearly. The battle lasted a long time, two days or something, I can't remember. I think I eventually pushed him back and he forfeit, but left me to die. Every bone. Every bone in my body was broken, I think. I thought I died after I blacked out, but unfortunately not.

"I woke up around a month later, still a tool, but picked up by the Tsukikage, leader of the Hidden Moon. He became my adoptive father, or so he said, and I was forced to teach him and the more talented members of the Hidden Moon my Wing-style. When I was training him, though, I found out he was with the Akatsuki.

"Knowing I knew this, he forced me into the group also. I began doing missions for money for him. He barred my room, like a prison, and sent me out every once and a while for assasinations requested in secret by other Hidden Villages. I could have easily run, but there were threats of mental and physical pain that bound me to him. I never ate, and became weaker. Assasins who thought me to be too dangerous would come in the night to kill me, but I simply killed them.

"I became of a jounin hunter-nin level at the age of fourteen, and the Tsukikage sent me out to train powerful ninja from other villages, Sora and Kawa, and I completed their training in three years, with many gaps in between making it only about six months. It was odd having to teach people who were six and eight years older than me.

"The Tsukikage had not mastered the Wing-style, luckily, because I refused to teach it to him. This was the one time I stood up for myself, and I was continually harassed for it. He would torture me for days by breaking my fingers or depriving me of food, water and sleep. It was during one of these torture sessions that I found out his secret.

"He was the scientist in charge of me, the one who created me, the cause of all my pain. He showed me the scrolls that were the accounts of the experiment, procedures, jutsus, results and all of my personal information. He then went on to tell me that he planned to launch an attack with the Akatsuki against Konoha.

"That was it, I couldn't take it. I remember, that was the night I simply snapped. I don't really remember, but I killed hundreds of people, innocent included, anyone who got in the way. The Akatsuki tried to hold me down, but pain was useless against me, I had a heart of ice and a black soul. So I painted the Hidden Moon red, and enjoyed it.

"I knew I had to run, get to Konoha and warn them, so I did. I ran for three days, chased by the Akatsuki. The rest you know, up until Itachi took me back.

"Orochimaru had joined with the Akatsuki and the Kirigenshi and were planning to start a giant war. If I had thought my life was Hell, than I don't know what it is now. It's taken a turn for the worst. Orochimaru continued with the experiment. He... my wings... and he stole my memories of my brother Haku. A month and a half... two weeks from now he will begin the war.

"I finally fought my way out, past around three thousand ninja, although only three hundred or so actually fought. I flew here with the griffin summon Akaihane. My life has no meaning whatsoever, and now Orochimaru is using me again. Had I the courage, I would have ended my life years ago. But I don't. I'm a worthless coward who can't protect anyone or anything. I'm a tool, a monster, my life means nothing to me or anyone else. But I just don't care anymore. Orochimaru is after me, and this time he'll kill me, but I'll take him with me no matter what. I swear. Before I die, I will see his blood spilt everywhere. He is a horrible monster, look at what he's done to me."

Koumei removed her robe and flooded the seal with chakra, managing to force it open again. The long, narrow, leathery wings stretched wide before folding. The four other ninja gasped in horror, and she pulled them in again, blood oozing slowly down her back. She replaced her robe, still facing away.

"Do you forgive me for lying? I can't... can't... just..." she trailed off as the wind carried her voice away. Kawa stepped up and grabbed her shoulders, spinning her around and hugging her. Koumei dropped her bag and stood perfectly still, not knowing what to do.

"We were never mad at you, we just wanted the truth. And you don't have no one, you've got us, and you're welcome to stay with us at any time. Just forget about all that stuff," Kawa broke away, but knowing that Koumei could never forget. She grabbed her arm and pulled her away as she grabbed her bag.

"Now, let's get dinner!" said Kawa happily, brushing past the three male ninja and draggind Koumei. Genma followed eventually, as did Kasei and Sora, back to the village as if nothing had happened. As Kawa passed them however, they noticed her blood red eyes were shimmering with tears.


End file.
